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TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 



TALES FROM 
IRISH HISTORY 



TOLD BY 

ALICE BIRKHEAD, B.A. 



WITH A MAP 



BOSTON 
LE ROY PHILLIPS 

1911 






Gill 



CONTENTS 



I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 
XXIII. 
XXIV. 

XXV. 
XXVI. 

CXVII. 
XVIII. 
XXIX. 



Preface .... 

The Land of Great Legend . 

Ancient Dwellers in Erin 

The Rule of the Saints 

The Coming of the Land-Leapers 

The Marriage of Strongbow . 

Edward Bruce, King of Ireland 

Art Macmorrogh, King of Leinster 

Gerald, Earl of Kildare 

Shane the Proud, Hero of the North 

Sir James Fitzmaurice, Rebel 

Mr Secretary Spenser 

Another View of the State of Ireland 

The Flight of the Earls 

The Colonization of Ulster 

The Scourge of Wentworth 

Owen Roe O'Neill, Patriot 

The Curse of Cromwell 

The Battle of the Boyne 

Patrick Sarsfield, Defender of Limerick 

Dean Swift, "the most Popular Man in 

Ireland" . . 

The Society of United Irishmen 
The Rebellion of '98 . 
The Union 

Daniel O'Connell, Liberator 
The Great Hunger 
Thomas More, "the Poet of the People 

of Ireland" . 
The Fenian Brotherhood 
The Case of Captain Boycott 
Home Rule for Ireland 
Index .... 



PAGE 
V 

I 

6 
II 
16 
22 

27 
31 
34 
38 
44 
49 
55 
59 
64 
68 

78 
84 
90 

96 
102 
107 
112 
117 
123 

128 

138 

143 
149 






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TALES 
FROM IRISH HISTORY 

CHAPTER I 

THE LAND OF GREAT LEGEND 

IRELAND has always been a land of heroes, but, 
in far-off days, these were not real men of flesh 
and blood. They were giants of such mighty size 
that stories of their deeds must needs be greater than 
any stories of mere men. Even after countless ages, 
it is still related how they loved and hated, lived and 
fought. Traces of their presence can be found in all 
the regions where they dwelt, and in the wild North- 
country some have l^ft us everlasting tokens lest we 
should perhaps hear and not believe. There, where 
Ireland confronts Scotland, through the shadowy mists 
you can see the marvellous Causeway, built to allow 
a Scotch giant passage from one land to the other, 
and not many miles away lies beautiful Lough Neagh, 
made by Fionn MacCoul as he pursued an enemy in 
rage, and seized a portion of the earth to hurl after 
him, and let loose, where the earth had been, a flood 
of mighty waters, now formed into a lake. 

The stories of ancient Ireland are tragic in their 
theme. The best known of them all are the Three 
Sorrows — The Fate of the Children of Usnach, The 
Fate of the Children of Lir, and The Fate of the 
Children of Turenn. 



2 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

The children of Usnach dwelt with King Cormac 
in his great palace of Emania, where assembled 
warriors famed in annals of war, and poets who 
chanted their exploits, and musicians who accompanied 
the lays of the poets on the harp. " The king's 
room was in the front of the house, and was long 
enough for thirty warriors. It was ornamented with 
silver and bronze, and carbuncles and precious stones, 
so that day and night were equally light therein. A 
gong of silver hung behind the king, suspended from 
the roof-tree, and when he struck it with his silver 
wand with three silver apples, all the men of Ulster 
were silent." 

Disaster fell upon the brave sons of Usnach — 
Naoisi, Ainle, and Ardan — through Deirdre, the 
daughter of the king's tale-teller. Very beautiful was 
Deirdre, but she was sad and lonely as a child, 
because she was not allowed to play with the other 
children of the court, but must watch their games 
from afar. Dire misfortune was foretold when Deirdre 
was born, and it was useless to try to avert this 
prophecy. From her window she saw Naoisi, and 
straightway loved him for the beauty of his brown- 
black hair and his white skin, which resembled the 
driven snow. At night Naoisi visited Deirdre secretly, 
and, loving her in return, entreated her to fly with 
him to Alba that they might escape King Cormac's 
wrath. Accompanied by one hundred warriors, they 
left their own land and dwelt in a far country, till 
one day, as they played a game of chess, messengers 
came to bid the sons of Usnach return to Erin. 
Deirdre warned her husband in vain that the king 
meant treachery by his summons. They returned to 
Emania, and all the three sons of Usnach were slain 
together, and Deirdre, singing first a mournful lament 



THE LAND OF GREAT LEGEND 3 

-over their dead bodies, threw herself into the same 
[grave and died with her arms about Naoisi. 
( The children of Lir were the daughter and three 
Isons of a famous king. When their own mother died, 
iEva, the second wife of Lir, used them very cruelly, 
and turned them into white swans ; for she was an 
: enchantress, and with her wand could work all evil 
,to those she did not love. She decreed that the 
swans should never regain their mortal shape till they 
heard the sound of Christian bells in L'eland. At 
first the swans sailed on the waters of Lake Darvra, 
and by day they spoke with the men of Erin, and at 
night they chanted fairy music with such sweetness 
that any who listened forgot all pain and grief. 

Then the swans were banished to the Sea of Moyle, 
which lies between Erin and distant Alba. Their 
hearts were wrung with anguish for the friends they 
saw no longer, and they suffered cruel hardships from 
cold and hunger, frost and storm. At last the tale 
of years had well-nigh run, and the four swans fled to 
the western sea and endured sore tribulation there, till 
a saint came to the island and his bells rang faintly 
the sound of their release. Youth never was restored 
to them, and all three bore the marks of more than 
mortal age when they entreated baptism and awaited 
the happier change of death. 

The children of Turenn were three also — Brian, 
Ur, and Urcar, exceeding all the champions in Tara 
for comeliness of person, swiftness of foot, and feats 
of arms. One day these warriors slew King Kian, 
with whose race they were at feud, and were called to 
answer for their crime on the great hill, where their 
own king sat, and by him Luga, son of the murdered 
man. Their punishment was left to Luga, who 
claimed an " eric-fine." The sons of Turenn had to 



4 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY j 

bring as gifts to him, first, three apples ; second, | 
the skin of a pig ; third, a spear ; fourth, two steeds 
and a chariot ; fifth, seven pigs ; sixth, a hound- 
whelp ; seventh, a cooking-spit ; eighth, three shouts 
on a hill. 

The sons of Turenn would have set out joyfully on 
their quest, had not Luga stopped them to explain the 
nature of their gifts more fully. The three apples 
were the golden apples of the Garden of Hisberna 
(Hesperides) and were guarded by a dragon. The 1 
pig's skin belonged to Tuis, King of Greece, and was 
very jealously guarded because it had the magic power 
of healing sickness, like the apples. The spear was the 
property of Pezar, King of Persia, and held precious 
because the wielder might perform what deeds he 
chose in battle. The hound-whelp followed the King 
of Troda, and was such that even the wild beasts of 
the forest fell down before him. The cooking-spit 
was to be wrested from warlike women, dwelling on 
the island of Fincara, and each one of them a match 
for three warriors in single combat. The shouts must 
be raised on the Hill of Midkena, where the king 
watched with his sons to compel all men to 
silence. 

The sons of Turenn had bold spirits that mocked 
at danger, and they conquered one foe after another, 
carrying off six parts of the " eric-fine." Then Luga 
chanced to hear whispers of their strange success, and 
cast a spell over them, so that they forgot the cooking- 
spit and the three shouts on Midkena's Hill. 

They returned only to set out on the quest again, 
and when the full " eric-fine " was paid, Luga felt a 
thrill of satisfied vengeance to behold those spent and 
weary warriors laying the gifts before him. Yet he 
had intended death to all three, and he refused the 



THE LAND OF GREAT LEGEND 5 

gift of a golden apple, which Brian asked to cure his 
brothers' wounds, knowing only happiness when the 
news was brought that Brian, Ur, and Urcar had lain 
down in despair to meet the fate of all men who dare 
face danger without fear of the deadly reckoning. 



CHAPTER II 

ANCIENT DWELLERS IN ERIN 

THE bards, or Ollamhs, who sang stories of the 
heroes, were reverenced in Erin above all other 
men. Two powers were theirs besides the gift of 
song. Secrets were revealed to them as to the 
prophets, and on all who injured them they might pro- 
nounce a curse. If the bard's spell lay on the land, 
it could bring forth no pasturage. Nay, it was im- 
possible to tread it without danger till the wrong had 
been repented and the curse withdrawn. 

The chief bard was next in rank to the king and 
his person was more sacred than that of the king 
himself. If a man slew the king, he paid the penalty 
of death, but any who slew a bard knew punishment 
that did not end with life. 

Wrongs done to ordinary men were punished by 
" erics " or fines. Two great books contain the old 
laws of Erin, and in the Book of Aicill and the Senchus 
Mor, we find that most crimes have a fixed penalty. 
Hurt to the body was always compensated by a fine, 
but the amount of the fine depended on the part of 
the body that was injured, whether it were the head, 
the arm, the leg, the nail of the toe, or the hair of the 
eyelashes ! 

A man, stung by a neighbour's bee, had the right of 
taking " a full meal " of honey, if the sting drew blood, 
but, if it only raised a lump, his compensation was 



ANCIENT DWELLERS IN ERIN ) 

reduced to " one-fifth of a full meal." Animals were 
freed from punishment for taking food which they 
could eat " in snatches," viz., " three bites on either side 
of the way," Should a cat eat food found in the 
kitchen, she would go scot-free by proving that it had 
been left about by the carelessness of the owner. 

Sensible men were punished when they failed in 
the duty of looking after people not so sensible. 
Women taking part in " woman-battle " might use 
their distaffs and comb-bags in the presence of their 
guardians. " This is after notice and fasting, but, if it 
is before notice and fasting, it is to be considered for 
what reason they did it." 

Certain rules for the sale of children are to be found 
in these books, and laws for bequeathing property, 
which was not left at the will of the possessor. A son 
had always a better claim than a daughter, who might 
only demand " the blade of gold, the silver thread and 
the tartan cloak " belonging to her mother. 

Hospitality was the duty of every chief, and there 
was a law that all great houses must have a road to 
them for the approach of guests. 

Cases in dispute were brought before a Brehon or 
judge, but he could not always insist on his judgments 
being carried out. The people were so scattered in 
different tribes that there was no strong central govern- 
ment to support the authority of the lawgiver. This 
division of the Irish into tribes was, indeed, the cause 
of trouble of every kind, and explains how it was that 
the Irish failed to drive off their enemies in spite of 
their love of warfare and their strong desire to rule. 
The tribes consisted of clans or great families of people, 
all supposed to be sprung from the same ancestry and 
bound together by ties of blood. 

There were five great provinces — Ulster, Leinster, 



8 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

Munster, Connacht, and Meath — and over each 
province ruled a Ri or king. The Ard-Ri or over- 
king of all Erin had his dwelling in Tara and Meath 
as his special domain. He received tribute from all 
the other kings, whose tenants paid tribute to them 
in kind, viz., cattle, honey, butter, wine, and clothing. 
The wealthier tenants were obliged to entertain their 
chief and his followers and to provide them with food 
and drink. This led to an abuse known as " Coyne " 
and " Livery," by which a military leader, unable to pay 
his soldiers, turned them out with weapons to seize 
other men's property as their lawful pay. Livery is 
thought by Spenser to have been the food " 'livered " 
or delivered to the horses, and the night's allowance of 
drink given to the retainers in great houses, also the 
apparel of a serving-man, so-called " for that it is 
delivered and taken from him at pleasure." " Coyne " 
was the maintenance of the soldier himself, and per- 
haps included actual money on some occasions when 
the meals were not to his taste. 

The chief of each clan had the right of naming his 
successor or Tanist. This w^as not always an eldest 
son but might be a brother, uncle, or cousin, who was 
thought likely to rule well. The land belonged to 
the clan, and had to be re-divided whenever a new 
chief was chosen. Men of the same clan were accus- 
tomed to support each other in battle, yet there was 
never a clan in Erin without a prince plotting to be 
chief, and everything outside the actual territory of the 
clan was looked upon as plunder. 

The tie of Fosterage was the only one that held 
good beside the tie of blood-relationship. The son of 
a chief was put out to be reared or " fostered " in the 
household of some other chief, and after he returned to 
his own people must still be faithful to the man who 



ANCIENT DWELLERS IN ERIN 9 

"fostered" him. Disloyalty to country was readily 
pardoned by a race with but an imperfect understand- 
ing of the bond which ought to exist between men 
of one nation. Disloyalty to a " fosterer " was held to 
be the blackest of crimes. 

The Irish king seldom had a standing army, but 
called on the men of his tribe to serve him in war 
as occasion arose. There were two kinds of foot- 
soldiers — Kerns and Gallowglasses. The first were 
light-armed men and wore the saffron linen tunic, which 
all native soldiers preferred to armour. The Gallow- 
glasses had heavier protection and carried battle-axes. 
Fighting was the favourite occupation of the chiefs, 
and they were buried standing in full battle array, 
sword in hand and face towards the territory of the 
enemy. The men of Erin believed that the body in 
this position could exercise an evil influence on the 
foe, who were thereby always defeated in battle. 

The religion of such warriors was full of strange 
beliefs, encouraged by the Druids, who gave instruction 
in all kinds of learning. They were lawgivers, poets, 
and physicians, and wielded the power of knowledge 
over the ignorant and superstitious. They were also 
skilled magicians. They professed that they could 
make a man invisible by giving him the " cloak of 
darkness," that they could drive him mad by flinging 
a wisp of straw in his face, and foretell his future by 
consulting the clouds and sky. The ancient people 
worshipped idols, the chief being " Crom Cruach," a 
pillar of stone covered with gold and surrounded by 
twelve smaller idols. They also worshipped wells, 
the sun and moon, and fire. They had a dim belief 
in some land of everlasting youth — a place inhabited 
by fairies, who were said to carry ofif mortals to dwell 
with them, sometimes against their will. 



lo TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

Paganism inspired a fighting spirit, and the history 
of Ireland is one of warfare without end. The women 
took part in it equally and fought side by side with 
the men till a law was made to forbid them in the days 
of Columbkille, which were the golden days of peace. 
In legendary ages, the Irish often crossed the sea — 
and traces of their visits can be found in Scotland, 
Wales, and the Isle of Man, so close to their own shores. 
Niall of the Nine Hostages was the most adventurous 
of the early kings. He even led invading armies into 
Britain, then under the declining power of Rome, and 
once made an expedition into Gaul. 



CHAPTER III 

THE RULE OF THE SAINTS 

SAINT PATRICK, the greatest of all the saints 
of Ireland, was brought to the island as a 
slave when he was in his seventeenth year. He 
is said to have been born about 390 A,D., but 
the place of his birth is uncertain, some scholars 
asserting that it was in Scotland and others in the 
west of Gaul. 

S. Patrick became the property of Milcho, a 
prince of Ulster, who sent him to herd swine on 
Slemish Mountain in Antrim and made him perform 
such hard service that he was minded to buy his 
freedom and return to his country. Yet he prayed 
" at least a hundred times a day and as many times 
during the night," and when he was instructing the 
Irish pagans in Christianity many years later, he was 
eager to convert his master. 

S. Patrick escaped to his own country after six 
years of slavery and studied with all his might to learn 
everything that would help him to turn the minds of 
heathens to the true god. He had constant dreams of 
the people of Ireland in their darkness, and voices 
seemed to come to him crying for his return. Before 
he was ready for the journey of conversion, the Pope 
blessed him and made him a bishop. He landed on 
the coast of Wicklow, but the people drove him away 
and he sailed northwards. Dicho and his followers 



12 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

were the first to receive baptism from S. Patrick, and 
afterwards a monastery rose in his honour, near 
Downpatrick. 

It was always S. Patrick's aim to win the hearts of 
the great chiefs, wherever he went, because he knew 
that the people would follow their example. He 
found Laegaire, King of Meath, very hard to touch, 
though the people of Meath showed themselves willing 
to hear Christian teaching. With the idea of keep- 
ing Easter on the Hill of Slane, S. Patrick lit a Paschal 
fire, which was seen by the king from Tara. Now 
there was a law to forbid any man to kindle a beacon 
before the fire was lit for the king's pagan festival, 
and Laegaire was filled with wrath against the saint. 
The Druids told him that the fire which had been lit 
could never be put out after that night had passed, so 
the king sent at once for S. Patrick to appear before 
him. At this meeting, some of the bards were 
converted, falling under the strange spell that S. 
Patrick seems to have cast over all who heard him. 
The king allowed them to spread Christian doctrine, 
but he was one of the few to cling to the ancient 
religion of Ireland while the missionaries journeyed 
through the country. From Tara the saint went to 
Connacht and thence to Ulster, drawing men after 
him in thousands, for none had ever greater glory as a 
minister of God. Wherever he went, churches and 
monasteries were built to carry on his work, and his 
disciples lived in toil and poverty, strengthened by 
the faith which he had taught them. Some brought 
their own neighbours to Christianity, while others risked' 
every danger to sail to foreign lands, where they 
sought to approach half-savage people. 

S. Patrick is said to have received a sign of his 
successor when he went on a visit to King Conall 



THE RULE OF THE SAINTS 13 

Gulban. When the king asked for a blessing, the 
saint turned to his son Fergus, saying, " Of his 
lineage will be born a son that is Columbkille." 
As he returned, the axle of his chariot broke at 
the ford of the river Deele ; when mended, it broke 
again as a sign that the land north of that river 
had no need for him, but must be left for another 
saint to bless. 

Columbkille, " Dove of the Churches," was born at 
Gartan, to the North of Ireland, in the year of our 
Lord 521. 

He was of royal birth, son of the princess Ethne 
and a chief Feidilnid, but he gave up all claim 
to the kingdom for the sake of God. He was 
given to a priest for " fosterage," and the priest 
taught him to read, they say, by writing the letters 
on a cake. 

Columbkille built the church of Derry, then Daire, 
" an oak-grove." The king gave him a dwelling in this 
place, which he loved so dearly that he wrote fine 
verses in its praise. The cutting of the trees was sad 
to him, and he left Daire with a heavy heart to go to 
" Scotland of the ravens." He had caused many 
battles in his own country, and some think he had to 
take refuge in lona on that account. 

lona or Hy became the seat of a great monastery, 
where all the arts of peace were taught. The 
monks of Ireland busied themselves with painting, 
carving, and bookbinding. Many of them " illumi- 
nated " very beautiful manuscripts, which are still 
treasured, among them being the Cathrach, a famous 
copy of the Psalter made by Columbkille, who also 
wrote three hundred copies of the New Testament 
with his own hand. A great struggle raged over the 
possession of the Cathrach, because Columbkille 



14 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

had copied it from a book belonging to S. Finian, 
who claimed the copy as his own. When the case 
was brought before the king, he laid down the law 
that as the calf went with the cow, so the copy went 
with the book. In spite of this, Columbkille seems 
to have kept possession of the Cathrach, which was 
preserved as a precious relic by the O'Donnells. " It 
is covered with silver under gold ; and it is not lawful 
to open it ; if it be sent thrice, rightwise, around the 
army of Kinell Conaill when they are going to battle, 
they will retire safe with victory." From this custom 
it took its name — Cathrach, the Battler. 

In his exile at lona, the saint was still consulted by 
his country on such great questions as the position of 
the bards, who had become troublesome by writing 
bad verses about the hosts whose entertainments did 
not please them. Some of the Irish would have done 
away with the bards altogether, but Columbkille was 
too great a friend of learning, and proposed that their 
number should be reduced, while certain laws were laid 
down to govern their conduct. 

Columbkille died on the isle of lona on the Sunday 
of Pentecost, and many saw a light in the sky on the 
night of his death, and some heard the voices of angels 
high in the air. The bards, gathered under an ancient 
yew tree, told how an angel came to them to bear the 
sad news. There is an old saying, too, that Columb- 
kille may have died in Hy, yet his soul is in Daire, and 
his body under a flagstone in Ardmacha. 

The days when the saints ruled Ireland were the 
most blessed days of all. S. Patrick bore the surname 
of Succath, the Warlike, and Columbkille was quite 
unlike a dove in spirit ; but the country, under their 
sway, waxed strong in prosperity and civilization. Its 
monasteries were famous throughout Europe — Slane; 



THE RULE OF THE SAINTS 15 

in Meath, where a King of France received his learning ; 
Kildare, where the fire of S. Brigit was kept ah'ght for 
centuries ; Armagh, where a fine cathedral rose. There 
has never been a period in her history when the fame 
of Ireland spread so far. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE COMING OF THE LAND-LEAPERS 

AFTER the death of Columbkille, the Irish 
Christians went on teaching the word of God 
in Ireland and going on missions to other lands, but, 
outside the monasteries, the people were as warlike 
as ever, and battle succeeded battle just as in heathen 
times. 

The four great houses of O'Conor, O'Brien, Mac- 
Morrogh, and O'Neill ruled the four provinces of Con- 
nacht, Munster, Leinster, and Ulster, and the O'Neills 
were over-kings of the whole island in name. Yet no 
chief could check, if he would, the strife of clan with clan. 

Then in the eighth century came a foe from without 
to join in the confused warfare the men of Erin waged 
among themselves. A band of Northmen appeared 
first on the Irish coast in 795 A.D., when they 
plundered the church of Columbkille, off Lambay 
Island, near Dublin. At first they came only to 
plunder, and did not go far inland, though they had 
the daring to capture the king on one of their raids 
and to take him off to their ships. They often 
captured bishops and learned men and shut them up 
in the strong fortresses they took, with the plunder 
that the new churches furnished, for the Northmen 
were heathens and hated Christianity and all who 
were of the new faith. The beautiful cathedral of 
Armagh was burnt to the ground in one of their first 
16 



THE COMING OF THE LAND-LEAPERS 17 

raids. The Irish trembled as they saw it fall with all 
the treasures they had stored there lovingly, and still 
more they trembled when Turgesius or Thorgist, lord 
of the Northmen, came on a raid in 845. 

Dreadful crimes of impiety followed this king's 
coming to the island ; and Ota, wife of Thorgist, dared 
to take her seat on the High Altar of the Church of 
Clanmacnois, and there give audience. Such sin did 
not escape punishment, they say, and Thorgist was 
drowned by a miracle after his wife's sacrilege. 

Religion suffered in other ways too. Cloichtechs 
or Round Towers had been built in the neighbourhood 
of churches and monasteries to serve as storehouses 
for precious relics and refuges of the defenceless. 
Many a time, in the troubled years of the Northmen's 
raids, old men and women and children hastened, with 
all their goods, to the Round Tower of the district, 
and ascending the ladder that led to the strong door, 
pulled it up after them in panic, while the warriors 
waited below to beat off the attack from their homes. 
It was not always safe in the Round Towers when 
the Northmen were resolved on plunder. In 950 we 
hear that the Cloichtech of Slane in Meath was burned 
by the enemy " with its full of relics and distinguished 
persons, and the crozier of the patron saint and the 
bell, which was the best of bells." 

About the middle of the ninth century, Northmen 
began to settle near the coast of Ireland. They built 
fortresses in Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford, and 
gave new names to several Gaelic towns. 

Soon after the death of Thorgist, seven score ships 
had come, bearing men of more dreadful aspect than the 
first Northmen, for these carried tents with them, and 
muffled them with such dark colourings that they were 
not likely to be seen at once. They wore black armour^ 
2 



1 8 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

too, and were so fierce that the sight of their dusky ships 
struck terror into the Irish when they approached. The 
first Northmen were called the Fair Foreigners, but they 
probably did not differ much in complexion from the 
second raiders, known as the Black Foreigners. 

A pitched battle was fought in 908 at Ballaghmoon 
in Kildare. " Woeful indeed was the tumult and 
clamour of that battle, for there rose the death-cry of 
the Munster men as they fell, and the shouting of the 
Leinster men exulting in slaughter." In this battle 
King Cormac fell on the field, his horse stumbling on 
the ground slippery with the blood of the slaughtered 
warriors. He died with a prayer upon his lips, for he 
was a bishop and scribe as well as a king, and greatly 
honoured for his piety. 

At a battle near Rathfarnham, the Northmen con- 
quered the army of the High King with " red slaughter," 
and O'Neill himself was slain with twelve chieftains 
around him. His defeat was avenged by Murkertagh of 
the Leather Cloaks, who succeeded him as High King. 

Murkertagh set out once in mid- winter to traverse 
the island in search of foes, and exact tribute from 
them. One thousand men went with him, the flower 
of all his troops. They spent each night at a different 
place, and received hostages and tribute from the 
Foreigners. From one northern queen, Murkertagh 
took a gift of bacon, and fine good wheat, and joints of 
meat, and fine cheese, and coloured mantles for each 
chieftain. At Kilcullan, snow fell, and the only houses 
to protect the warriors were their strong leather cloaks. 
They carried off Lorcan, King of Leinster, with " a 
rough bright fetter on him." They then passed into 
Ossory, receiving ale and hogs from a hospitable 
chief. " Not a man of them returned to his home 
without a beautiful present of dress." 



THE COMING OF THE LAND-LEAPERS 19 

Murkertagh returned home in state, leading captive 
kings to the Ard-Ri, who decHned to keep them, but 
freely bestowed a blessing on the captor. In 943, 
Murkertagh fell in battle near Ardee, fighting valiantly 
for his kingdom. 

In the second half of the tenth century, two other 
bold defenders rose against the Northmen — Malachy, 
the Ard-Ri and head of the 0'Neills,and Brian Boromna, 
chieftain of the Dal Cais, who dwelt in the north of 
Munster. It was time indeed that the tyrants should 
be checked, when, as the bard of O'Brien's house writes, 
they had " a king in every territory, an abbot in every 
church, a steward in every village, and a soldier in every 
house, so that none of the men of Erin had power even 
to give the milk of his cow, nor as much as the clutch 
of eggs of his hen, in succour or kindness to an aged 
man, or to a friend, but was obliged to preserve them for 
the foreign steward or bailiff or soldier." 

In England the Northmen settled among the 
English, and became united to them in course of time ; 
but in Ireland, the race-differences were too great, 
and the Northman was always " the foreigner," hated 
and despised by the people he ruled so harshly. 

After the Northmen built their forts at King's 
Island, near Limerick, and placed their ships on the 
Upper Shannon, they harried especially the land of 
the Dal Cais. Mahon, King of Leinster, was forced 
into paying tribute ; but his brother, Brian Boromna, 
retired into the woods, and held out till he was in the 
last extremities. At a meeting of the Dal Cais, every 
voice declared for war ; so, in 968, a battle was fought 
at Sulcost, near Limerick, which lasted from sunrise 
to midday, and ended in a complete rout of the North- 
men and their allies. The fort and town of Limerick 
fell into the hands of the victors ; the prisoners were 



20 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

collected on a hill near Limerick, and " every one that 
was fit for war was put to death, and every one that 
was fit for a slave was enslaved." 

In 978, Brian attacked Donovan, a native chief, 
whose daughter had married Ivar, a Northman of 
VVaterford, and who was himself allied with the 
invaders. Brian defeated the traitor, became undis- 
puted King of Munster, and after a long struggle with 
Malachy, the High King, received his submission and 
reigned in his stead. 

For twelve years Erin had peace under Brian, who 
was a wise ruler, though he had gained his power by 
force of arms, and insisted on levying the " boromna " 
or cow-rent, a tribute, which made the men of Leinster 
his deadly enemies. He sought to be supreme over 
his tribe, yet showed himself a brave warrior and skilful 
leader, both in his struggle with Malachy and his con- 
tinued warfare with the " proud invader." He rebuilt 
monasteries, erected fortresses, restored schools and 
colleges, and brought the country to such a state of order 
that a beautiful maiden is said to have decked herself 
in rich attire, adorned with jewels, and to have gone 
alone from one end of the kingdom to the other with- 
out encountering danger. 

Brian was collecting forces for an attack on Dublin, 
a stronghold of the Northmen, and they mustered an 
army to meet him with the help of kinsmen from 
across the sea. The final struggle brought Brodar, 
a Viking, of giant proportions, with armour " that no 
steel could bite," and Sigurd of Orkney, who carried the 
raven standard, which was shaped like the bird of evil 
omen, and seemed, when the wind blew, to flap its 
wings. The men of Leinster and Ossory trok the 
Northmen's side, while Brian gathered the men of 
Meath under their old king, Malachy. Ulster and 



THE COMING OF THE LAND-LEAPERS 21 

Connacht would not take part in the battle, which 
was fought at Clontarf on the Friday before Easter, 
I o 1 4. Before the battle, Brian went round his camp, 
holding a crucifix in his left hand, and a sword with a 
golden scabbard in his right. He wished to remind 
his men that they fought for the cause of Christ 
against heathens, who were ruthless in destruction of 
all that was sacred to Christianity. 

On the Viking's side, over ten thousand men had 
been summoned by the dispatch of the war-arrow, 
sent from settlement to settlement to give the warning 
of battle, and call out the fighting men. The Raven- 
standard was their rallying-point, and the belief that 
the man who bore it was doomed to death gained 
more credence from the day of Clontarf, when Sigurd 
took it into his hands unwillingly, and fell on the 
battle-field, his mighty strength availing naught. 

Brian's army stood in closely-packed lines to meet 
the fierce host, who had proved the curse of Ireland. 
The men of South Munster were overthrown, but as the 
Northmen scattered in pursuit, Malachy came up and 
drove the enemy with " red slaughter " to their ships. 

Brodar, the Viking, made for the woods, and as he 
passed Brian's tent, he saw the old king, and slew him 
with an axe. The Irish avenged the death of their 
leader by pursuing Brodar and hacking him to pieces, 
but all the glory of their victory at Clontarf was 
undone. The hope of a settled government vanished. 
Malachy was restored to the throne, and the old disorder 
soon made Brian's reforms of little value. Till the 
coming of the race that was to conquer Ireland, there 
is nothing in her history save a bewildering record of feud 
between the great houses and successive usurpations of 
the throne, and all that loss of life in battle that was too 
true a shadowing of the history yet to come. 



CHAPTER V 

THE MARRIAGE OF STRONGBOW 

IN the reign of Roderick O'Conor, a certain chief of 
Leinster, by name Diarmid, or Dermot, carried off 
the wife of O'Rourke, another chief, with cattle and 
plunder of all kinds. Devorgil does not seem to have 
been unwilling to leave her husband, but a great outcry 
followed her so-called capture, as soon as it was known. 
Diarmid was a violent man, with little care for the 
hurt he did to others. He had begun his reign by 
attacking Kildare, killing many townsmen and members 
of the convent, and making the abbess leave her cell 
to marry one of his courtiers. It was, indeed, a time 
of lawlessness, when might was right, and chief vied 
with chief in acts of cruelty. One of the kings put 
out the eyes of his own son, and kept him in prison 
after he had sworn to be at peace with him. It was 
so usual a custom to blind captives likely to be 
dangerous, " that scarcely a princely house throughout 
Ireland was there where some blind warrior lived not, 
occupying the corner of the hearth." Yet there were 
still many to be shocked by Diarmid's robbery from 
O'Rourke, and his own subjects were the first to turn 
against him. They ranged themselves on the side 
of O'Conor, King of Ireland, who was minded to 
answer the appeal of O'Rourke. He marched into 
Leinster, plundered the land where men were still 
faithful to Diarmid, and destroyed the palace of Fearha. 



THE MARRIAGE OF STRONGBOW 23 

In 1 166, the King of Leinster was fain to flee from 
Ireland and take refuge at Bristol, where his father had 
old friends. There had long been a traffic in slaves 
between Bristol and the ports of Ireland. Diarmid 
intended to seek the help of Henry II., King of 
England, on the plea that Irish soldiers had helped 
that monarch against the Welsh. Henry was then in 
Aquitaine, whence his queen had come with great 
possessions. He agreed to give Diarmid letters to 
empower the Norman nobles to take part in an 
adventure to Ireland, if they wished. 

There were scores of idle men in England, trained 
only for the wars, and always eager for plunder. They 
had spent sad days since Henry II. came to the throne, 
because he refused to allow them to rob and quarrel 
according to their habits under a weaker king. 
Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, was one of these 
Norman barons now deploring the money they had 
lost since peace prevailed. He was no longer young, 
and sought provision for his old age, quite careless as 
to the means by which he might obtain it. When 
Diarmid approached him, he consented quickly to go 
to Ireland and help the ousted king against his sub- 
jects, on condition that he should marry Eva of Leinster, 
and have the succession to Diarmid's kingdom. 

A famous Welsh family, afterwards known as the 
Geraldines, were bribed to help Diarmid by the promise 
of Wexford, though the town was in the hands of 
Northmen. They set out for Ireland in 1168, an 
historian famed as Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald of 
Wales, accompanying the expedition, and chronicling 
the wonderful exploits of his family. As soon as they 
landed, the adventurers attacked Wexford, but did 
not find it an easy possession to win. They had to 
set fire to all the ships in the harbour before the 



24 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

inhabitants submitted. Giraldus records that their 
leader was knocked down from a wall by a blow of 
such might that sixteen years later all his double 
teeth fell out in consequence ! 

Diarmid rewarded his Welsh allies by the promised 
gift of Wexford, and then began to quarrel with them. 
He even told Roderick O'Conor that they should be 
sent back to their own country, if he might have 
Leinster on easy terms. 

Then Strongbow arrived, a warrior to be dismissed 
by no treacherous excuses. He was longing to use his 
sword again in the old free way of the Norman barons. 
Being almost all that he possessed, it was doubly precious 
for that reason. Waterford fell before the combined 
assault of Diarmid and Pembroke, and in the midst of 
the warfare, a strange marriage was celebrated. Eva, 
daughter of King Diarmid, was a young and beautiful 
maiden. A compact united her with tears and blood 
to the elderly Norman baron. In triumph their 
chariots passed over the bodies of dead and dying men, 
and in triumph they began another union as ill-assorted 
— that of Great Britain and Ireland. 

Strongbow and Diarmid had now the assembled 
forces of the kingdom against them. Dublin was the 
city which they attacked, hoping to avenge a private 
insult offered to the father of Diarmid, who had been 
buried by Northmen in the same grave with a dog. 
The old King of Leinster fought his last battle well — 
it was chiefly through his valour that the city was 
taken. In the following year he died, appointing 
Strongbow to succeed him. " Diarmid Macmurchadha, 
King of Leinster, by whom a trembling rod was made 
of Ireland, after having brought over the Saxons, after 
having done extensive injuries to the Irish, after 
plundering and burning many churches — died before 



THE MARRIAGE OF STRONGBOW 25 

the end of a year of an insufferable, unknown disease, 
without making a will, without penance, without the 
body of Christ, and without unction as his evil deeds 
deserved." 

The native chiefs did not allow Strongbow accession 
to Leinster without protest, but the Norman defeated 
them by his daring, and then went forth to the attack 
of the Danish king. 

Henry H. heard of his subject's success in war, and 
grew alarmed at the news of each fresh victory. He 
resolved to go to Ireland and demand homage from 
Strongbow in that country. 

In 1 171 he landed at Cork, then marched to 
Waterford Harbour with horsemen, archers, and great 
stores of weapons and provisions. Strongbow feared 
to oppose the king, who had ruled him firmly, and 
came humbly to Waterford to promise full submission. 
The Irish chiefs came too, except O'Neill of Ulster, 
and Henry became feudal lord and King of Ireland 
" without firing a single shot in anger, or spilling, so 
far as we know, a single drop of Irish or Norman 
blood." 

At Dublin they erected a royal building in honour 
of the English king " of beautiful earth roofed with 
wattles." Henry dazzled the Irish by the splendour 
of his robes, and the quality of his glittering weapons. 
Gold and silver and scarlet and fur made them think 
him the greatest of monarchs. He added to this 
admiration by the lavish way in which he entertained 
all guests. Luxuries had been brought in ships to 
Ireland of a kind that had never been known there 
hitherto. The wondering chiefs learnt for the first 
time to eat such birds as herons, cranes, peacocks, and 
wild geese, finishing the repast with fruit and almonds 
from the East, and the noted cheese of Gloucester. 



26 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

Henry also received the Irish clergy, whose simple 
habits formed a strange contrast to his ostentation. 
Gelasius, Bishop of Armagh, brought his own white 
cow with him, and refused any other nourishment than 
her milk ! 

In 1 172, Henry had to return to England. He had 
made changes for the better both in the law and Church 
of Ireland, for he was a fine administrator, and could 
not endure disorder. He insisted that the Irish princes 
should treat him as their overlord, and allowed Strong- 
bow, Earl of Pembroke, to retain L<einster, leaving 
Hugh De Lacy as the First Lord-Deputy in Ireland. 



CHAPTER VI 

EDWARD BRUCE, KING OF IRELAND 

THE Norman nobles left by Henry II. in Ireland, 
added nothing to the peace of that kingdom. 
The Lord- Deputy never had a very large army to help 
him in the task of keeping order, and the barons were 
nearly as indifferent to his authority as to that of the 
king " across the water." The native chiefs continued 
to fight each other, the barons had fierce quarrels too, 
and the invaders lived like men in an enemy's territory, 
trying to win new lands and plundering without 
shame. 

King John came in haste to quell his subjects of 
Ireland. Though he only stayed sixty days he acted 
so vigorously that even the Norman barons submitted 
for the time, and several Irish chiefs paid homage. 
At the close of John's reign, the same chiefs made 
some sort of stand for their rights, and in the reign of 
Henry III. there was a general revolt against English 
government. At the same time, civil war raged in 
Ireland, the War of Meath, the War of Kildare, and 
the struggle for the throne of Connacht. 

A warrior from Scotland, also asserting independ- 
ence, received a warm welcome when he landed at 
Larne in 1 3 1 5 (a.d.) with a band of fighting men. 
Perhaps he was inspired by his brother Robert's 
glorious victory of Bannockburn, or perhaps he was 

jealous of such sovereignty, and desired a kingdom of 

27 



28 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

his own. He found many allies at once among the 
northern Irish, who looked upon the Scotch as neigh- 
bours. With these friends he plundered Ulster, 
burning and destroying so wastefuUy that even food 
was spoilt, while people starved all through the country. 
He moved southwards to attack Dundalk, the principal 
garrison of the English, who assembled in force to 
defend it. A party sent out to reconnoitre brought 
back the news that the Scots would be but " half a 
dinner to them." The Scots were never served as 
a banquet, for they stormed the town with vigour, 
displaying all their banners, and then were able to 
feast victorious on the wine and victual that their foes 
left in their stampede from Dundalk. 

After this success, Edward Bruce was crowned King 
of Ireland without unnecessary ceremony. He 
defeated an army raised by Richard De Burgo, the 
Red Earl of Ulster, at the battle of Connor, and march- 
ing into Meath routed an English army at Kells. In 
I 316 he gained a victory over the army of the Lord- 
Deputy at Ardscull. 

The Irish could not unite against their conquerors, 
and were uncertain allies to Edward Bruce. Joined 
by the O'Briens of Thomond, he marched to Athenry, 
where the English crossbows did fatal damage in 1316. 

As Bruce laid siege to Carrickfergus for the second 
time, his brother Robert arrived and found the English 
reduced to eating hides, and even the bodies of 
the Scots they had made prisoners. The brave 
garrison were at last forced to surrender on condition 
that their lives should be spared. 

Early in the spring of i 3 i 7, the two brothers set 
out for Dublin, destroying as they went all that came 
their way. The citizens were bold in the defence 
of this city under the mayor, Robert Nottingham, who 



EDWARD BRUCE, KING OF IRELAND 29 

had held office seventeen times. The Earl of Ulster 
was father-in-law to Robert Bruce, and the citizens 
made him a hostage for the safety of Dublin. This 
ruse was successful — the Scots army turned aside. 

After Robert Bruce returned to his own kingdom, 
the final battle was fought near Dundalk between 
King Edward and Sir John Bermingham, the English 
leader. The Bishop of Armagh blessed the enterprise 
of the English army before they met the foe. The 
death of Edward decided the conflict, which raged 
fiercely. He was slain by Maupas, a knight, after a 
struggle at close quarters. Maupas paid with his own 
life, and was found on the body of the king. 

Edward Bruce's head, salted and placed with other 
heads in a chest, was set before the King of England 
at a royal banquet. The " dainty dish " caused the 
monarch little emotion, for he watched complacently 
the horrified rush of Scottish ambassadors from the 
table, and expressed himself " right glad to be rid of 
a felon foe." He rewarded Bermingham with the 
earldom of Louth and the kingdom of Ardee, rejoicing 
that the battle of Dundalk had made an end of 
Scottish rule in Ireland. 

The Irish people were left to carry on resistance 
to English oppression in their own way, yet the 
late disasters had done much to limit the English 
rule. Bruce had been a friend of O'Neill, chief of 
the northern Irish, and had helped him to keep up 
the customs of " gossipred " and " fosterage," which 
were against the laws of the new rulers. The 
English gradually lost all hold on Ulster, and year by 
year their power diminished as the settlers began to 
intermarry with the natives, and made common cause 
with them. Some of the greatest English nobles took 
Irish names, and declared themselves independent of 



30 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

England. Only the Pale or district round Dublin 
remained faithful to recent conquests, and had to pay 
Black Rent to Irish chiefs on the borders for their own 
defence. 

In I 361, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, came on a visit 
to Ireland. He thought all the trouble was caused 
by the busy intercourse of native and settler, and 
determined to stop it by law. The statute of Kilkenny, 
passed in 1367, forbade intermarriage, fosterage, and 
gossipred. It was against the law henceforward to 
use the Irish dress or language, to ride a horse 
without a saddle, or adopt any other Irish custom. 
Nobody was to entertain in his house bards, pipers 
story-tellers or mowers, because they were often spies 
on the English. The old Brehon laws were to pass 
out of use, and English must be spoken even by those 
who did not know it ! 

Lionel's rule was a failure, and his want of sym- 
pathy with the Irish made him unable to go through 
with his reforms. They became mere forms disre- 
garded by the Irish nation as they grew more and 
more beyond control. 



CHAPTER VII 

ART MACMORROGH, KING OF LEINSTER 

THE English rulers in succession to Lionel, Duke 
of Clarence, were as foolish and oppressive as 
that ill-fated prince. They seem to have seldom paid 
any debts they made in Ireland. Sir Thomas Rokeby 
is praised for " beating the Irish well " in his time as 
Lord-Deputy, and also for paying his way honestly. 
" I will," he says, " use wooden platters and spoons, but 
give gold and silver for my food and clothes, and for 
the men in my pay." 

In 1375, Art Macmorrogh was elected King of 
Leinster, promising " to splaye his banner within 
two miles of Dublin, and after to invade the whole 
land." He carried out his threat so valiantly that 
even the Dublin Council had to pay him Black 
Rent as the price of peace. So woeful a story was 
told by the Irish settlers, who fled to England, that 
King Richard II. declared he would crush this rebel 
himself. 

The king landed at Waterford in 1394 with the 
largest army that had ever come to Ireland. As soon 
as Art Macmorrogh heard of this arrival, he attacked 
New Ross, an English settlement, burned its houses 
and castles, and carried away gold, silver and hostages. 
The King's fine army performed nothing worthy of its 
size, and its divisions were easily defeated by the native 
chiefs. Richard gave up the hope of victory and tried 



32 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

to please his Irish subjects by knighting O'Neill, 
O'Conor, Macmorrogh and O'Brien, the descendants of 
four royal races in Ireland. 

After a visit of nine months the king decided to 
return home, leaving his cousin, Roger Mortimer, to be 
deputy. As soon as he departed, the chiefs, who had 
sworn loyalty to him, rebelled and slew the deputy 
with a great number of English settlers at Kells, 1397. 

Richard, in wrath at this insult, determined to 
avenge the death of his cousin. He gathered another 
large army and a vast store of provisions. He also took 
with him to Ireland the Crown Jewels and a precious 
flask of oil, said to have been sent down from heaven 
to Archbishop Becket as he prayed at the shrine of 
Columbkille. 

Richard, landing at Waterford, marched straight to 
the Wicklow mountains, where Macmorrogh was in 
ambush. He ordered his men to cut down the wood, 
in which the Leinster chief was hidden, but the royal 
army was foiled for eleven days in their attack. 
Parties sent out to forage were stopped, and the English 
began to know starvation. When supplies were 
brought to Waterford, the soldiers rushed into the sea, 
" as if it were straw." They opened the casks of wine 
at once, and no less than a thousand of them were 
seen drunk at one time. Next day, they marched 
towards Dublin, constantly harassed by the Irish in 
the rear. 

Macmorrogh at last offered to come to terms with 
the English leader, and came to a conference riding 
without saddle " a horse that had cost him four hundred 
cows." The two parties could not arrange matters, 
for Macmorrogh had married an Anglo-Norman 
heiress, and wanted his wife's lands, while the English 
were not disposed to agree to his possession of them. 



ART MACMORROGH, KING OF LEINSTER 33 

Richard II. was angry at the failure of negotiations 
and still resolved to have the life of the rebellious 
Macmorrogh. He never carried out his resolve, for he 
reached Dublin to hear that his own kingdom was lost. 
During his absence, one of his subjects had been 
crowned king as Henry IV. These two rash ex- 
peditions to Ireland had indeed cost Richard his 
throne. He was taken prisoner as soon as he arrived 
in England, and only now enjoys the fame of being 
the last English king for three hundred years to cross 
the Channel on a royal visit. 

After the fallen king's departure from Ireland, Art 
Macmorrogh became a still greater danger to the 
English government. He managed to become owner 
of his wife's lands, and though he was defeated once 
by the Lord-Deputy, Sir Stephen Scroope, he gained 
two signal victories over the people of Wexford before 
his death in 141 7. It was thought that Macmorrogh 
died from poison, administered by an enemy, after a 
common practice of the times. He was one of 
Ireland's most heroic defenders and enjoyed the glory 
of complete success in his determined stand against 
submission to the English yoke. 



CHAPTER VIII 

GERALD, EARL OF KILDARE 

i 

OF an ancient and noble race, warriors and scholars 
too, that family of the Geraldines, who had first 
come to Ireland as invaders, became in course of time 
more Irish in its ways and customs than the native 
chiefs themselves. They had intermarried and 
" gossiped " with the leading Irish families, they had 
given up their own language and engaged in warfare 
with the boldest. Perhaps it was their natural love of 
ficrhting that made them so beloved by the ancient 
Irish race ! 

Gerald, Earl of Kildare, was Lord-Deputy in the 
time of King Henry VH., who was a usurper and had 
constant trouble with pretenders to the throne of 
Encrland. Lambert Simnel gave out that he was a 
Yorkist prince and gained many friends in Ireland, 
because there had once been a very popular Deputy 
from that house. Kildare chose to support Simnel 
instead of being loyal to the reigning monarch, and in 
1487 the pretender was actually crowned as Edward 
VI. in Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin. Kildare was 
present at the coronation, a strange ceremony, since 
the crown was a diadem borrowed from a statue of 
the Virgin, and the new king was shown to the people 
on the shoulders of Darcy Platten, the tallest man in 

Ireland. 

Kildare ordered the citizens of Waterford to join 

34 



GERALD, EARL OF KILDARE 35 

Simnel's party, but the mayor was a member of the 
family of Butler and the Butlers were sworn foes and 
rivals of the Geraldines. He sent a messenger to 
Kildare, declaring that anyone who had taken part in 
the mock coronation was a traitor. Kildare had the 
messenger hanged, and then gave orders through a 
herald bearing the arms of Geraldine, that the citizens 
should proclaim Edward VI. on pain of being hanged 
at their own doors. The only reply to this threat was 
to the effect that Waterford would send out men to 
meet the Deputy's army and save him the trouble of 
coming to hang them. 

Simnel did not gain much ground in Ireland and 
crossed to England, taking Irish soldiers, who fought 
valiantly in his cause at Stoke, and met a cruel 
fate in battle through their scanty clothes and 
useless weapons. Henry VII. took Simnel prisoner, 
thanked the men of Waterford for their loyalty, and 
encouraged them to harass the Earl of Kildare and 
the men of Dublin by sea and land. Later on, 
he pardoned the rebels, allowing Kildare to continue 
Deputy. He called the Irish nobles to his court 
that they might swear allegiance to him. " My 
masters of Ireland " was his greeting, " you will crown 
apes at length." At dinner Lambert Simnel, now the 
king's servant, had to offer wine to the guests, who were 
very unwilling to take the cup from him, since they 
remembered the days when it had been their duty to 
serve him. At last the Earl of Howth, a follower of 
Henry VII., asked for the cup, saying, " I shall drink 
it off for the wine's sake and mine own sake also and 
for thee ; as thou art so I leave thee, a poor innocent." 

Henry made the Irish nobles linger at his court till 
they were nearly ruined by the expense, then dismissed 
them with a gift to the only loyal man of three hundred 



36 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

pounds in gold, and the robe he had worn when he 
received them. 

As soon as Kildare returned to Ireland, he quarrelled 
with his old enemy Sir James Butler. Various friends 
tried to patch up this quarrel by arranging a meeting 
in S. Patrick's Cathedral. Sir James came with peace- 
ful intentions but was seized with panic and barred 
himself in the Chapter House out of reach of the enemy. 
Kildare promised not to injure him, and thrust his hand 
through a hole in the door, cut for the purpose. When 
they had shaken hands and Butler opened the door, the 
two chiefs embraced, declaring friendship. To make 
amends for the rioting in the church, the Pope ordered 
the mayor to go barefoot through the town on the day 
of Corpus Christi, a custom faithfully observed till the 
time of the Reformation. 

In 1492, Kildare lost his position as Deputy and 
was succeeded two years later by Sir Edward Poynings, 
an Englishman, sent out to diminish the power of the 
Irish nobles. At the Parliament of Drogheda, 1494, 
the famous Act was passed, afterwards known as 
Poynings' Law, and declaring that no Act in the future 
was to be passed by the Irish Parliament, unless it had 
been approved by the English king and his Privy 
Council. Another provision aimed at Kildare by 
forbidding the use of war-cries such as " Crom aboo," 
" Butler aboo," which had been the usual taunts in the 
quarrels of Geraldines and Butlers. The Parliament 
accused Kildare of making war on the king and plot- 
ting to kill the new Deputy. At his trial in England, 
Kildare proved more than a match for Henry VII. 
and was released. One of his accusers exclaiming, 
" All Ireland cannot rule this man ! " the king replied 
grimly, " Then if all Ireland cannot rule him, he shall 
rule all Ireland." 



GERALD, EARL OF KILDARE 37 

Kildare was reinstalled as Deputy and showed some 
gratitude to Henry VII. His loyalty was so little 
suspected afterwards that he was allowed in 1503 to 
take back his son Gerald, who had been left as a 
hostage at the English Court. 

But a Kildare must needs be fighting, and, in i 504, 
a fierce battle took place at Knocktow between 
Kildare's followers and William Burke, who had 
married the Deputy's daughter, " which was not so 
used as the Earl could be pleased with." A council 
of war was summoned, including bishops and men of 
law. O'Neill objected to the presence of bishops at 
this meeting, " for their profession is to pray and preach, 
to make fair weather and not to be privy to man- 
slaughter or bloodshed." O'Conor was contemptuous 
about the men of law, saying that it was a time to 
discuss with bow, spear, and sword rather than with 
pen and ink. In spite of disputes, all things were put 
in order before night came when men lay in camp, 
" watching, drinking, and playing at cards, who should 
have this prisoner and that prisoner." The earl's 
speech to his army was broken by three great cries. 
" What meaneth this cry ? " said he, " do they think 
we are crows that we will fly with crying ? '' Then he 
took a great oath that men indeed should the enemy 
find when they took to battle, and inspired with fierce 
anger he gained the victory of Knocktow, over his 
fellow-countrymen. The English king was so glad to 
be rid at a blow of 9000 Irishmen, that he rewarded 
Kildare by making him a Knight of the Garter. 

In 1 5 12, the Deputy invaded Ulster, took the 
castle of Belfast, and spoiled the land far and wide. 
The following summer he marched against his last 
enemy and was shot while he watered his horse in a 
stream. 



CHAPTER IX 

SHANE THE PROUD, HERO OF THE NORTH 

THE O'Neills were among those noble Irish 
families compelled to give up their lands to 
Henry VHI. and receive them again in feudal 
tenure. The title of Earl of Tyrone was granted to 
Con O'Neill, the Lame, on the understanding that it 
was to pass to his son Matthew Kelly, then Baron 
of Dungannon. But Con had another son, who 
disputed Matthew's rights, declaring that he was 
only a blacksmith's boy and could not rule all 
Ulster. Shane O'Neill was beloved by the people, 
and after Matthew was killed, the chief took him 
into favour though he suspected that he had brought 
about Matthew's death for reasons of jealousy. Shane 
repaid his father's confidence by driving him out 
into the Pale, where he died, a deposed ruler. 
Still the hero of all Ulster, Shane then placed his 
foot upon the royal stone, and out on the mountain 
side, he was proclaimed O'Neill. 

In 1560, Elizabeth, Queen of England, had grave 
cause to fear danger to her power. Her general 
reported from Dublin that it was almost impossible 
to keep the field against soldiers who lived on 
food " that would satisfy none others of God's 
making." The English had been trying to set up 
the O'Donnells against O'Neill, a plan that was 
3S 



SHANE THE PROUD, HERO OF THE NORTH 39 

frustrated by Shane's capture of Calvagh O'Donnell 
and his sister. 

Sussex, the Lord-Deputy, managed to take Armagh 
but came very near to losing it again. Shane appeared 
outside the walls quite suddenly with the army led by 
a procession of monks. Each soldier carried a faggot 
in order to burn the cathedral over the heads of the 
English, and the Primate urged on the attack, lauding 
the piety of Shane, their leader. The mass sung by 
the monks was drowned by screams and battle-cries — 
" Strike for O'Neill ! " " The Bloody Hand ! "—as the 
soldiers rushed upon the English. Sussex drove them 
back after hard conflict and lost many men in his 
skirmish with O'Neill. He was afraid to tell Elizabeth 
how difficult a task she had set him in Ireland, and 
tried to induce Niel Grey to murder Shane. The 
queen determined to summon the Irish chief to her 
court to explain his right to the throne of Ulster, 
while Matthew's son still lived. O'Neill showed 
remarkable prudence, refusing to cross to England 
before he was paid all travelling expenses and insisting 
on the escort of the Earl of Kildare. He finally set 
sail from Dublin with a train of gallowglasses, and 
was received in state by Elizabeth at her court on 
January 2nd, i 561. 

" Now was Shan O'Neill come out of Ireland to 
perform what he had promised a year before, with 
a guard of axe-bearing gallowglasses, bareheaded, 
with curled hair hanging down, yellow surplices 
dyed with saffron, long fleeces, short coats, and hairy 
mantles." 

The council, the bishops, and the ambassadors had 
assembled to gaze at the Irish chief as though he were 
some wild animal, and when Shane threw himself at 
Elizabeth's feet, crying for pardon in the Irish tongue, 



40 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

his hearers thought the sound was Hke the howling of 
a dog ! 

Shane was detained in England on all kinds of 
pretexts, for the queen felt that she was safer while he 
was apart from his clan. He spent his time in the 
English pursuits of hawking and hunting and was 
regularly admitted to the council of the queen. He 
took the opportunity of begging for a wife " some 
gentlewoman of blood," though he had an unfortunate 
captive countess, who was always chained to a foot- 
boy in his absence, and he does not seem to hav^e 
been a tender husband. The English wits dubbed 
him — • 

" Shane O'Neill, Lord of the North of Ireland ; 
Cousin of St Patrick. Friend of the Queen of England ; 
Enemy of all the world besides." 

At last Elizabeth could find no excuse for keeping 
Shane at Court any longer. Matthew's son was to 
have come to state his claim in Shane's presence, but 
he was murdered by Tirlogh O'Neill and nobody 
could question Shane's succession. Elizabeth tried 
to bribe her rebel by giving him all he asked, and 
Shane returned home with a purse full of money 
and the title of Captain of Tyrone. He summoned 
the chiefs of Tyrone before him and ordered them 
to acknowledge him their lord. When the O'Donnells 
refused, he called his men to arms and marched into 
Tyrconnell. 

The chief still hankered after an English wife, 
preferably the sister of Lord Sussex, who tried to use 
the lady as a means of subduing Shane, but never 
intended to give her to him. Failing in this scheme, 
Sussex wrote to the queen that there was every 
chance of O'Neill being accepted king by the four 



SHANE THE PROUD, HERO OF THE NORTH 41 

provinces, unless English forces were sent against 
him. 

Con O'Donnell added a complaint that Shane had 
carried off his father and mother and demanded the 
surrender of his castles. When O'Donnell had held 
out from loyalty to the English, Shane had burnt his 
farms, destroyed his cattle, and brought about his 
utter ruin. 

Sussex was allowed to make war, but all his efforts 
were unsuccessful. He had ill-armed men and scanty 
supplies of food, and, above all, a certain belief that he 
could never conquer his enemiy. He made very bitter 
excuses for his failures, bewailing his lack of money 
and tools for fortification. These laments made 
Elizabeth impatient, and she merely gave fresh con- 
cessions to O'Neill, who was, in reality, the ruler of all 
Ulster. Again, Sussex tried to get rid of his foe by 
foul means, sending a cask of poisoned wine to 
O'Neill's household. The scheme was discovered and 
the chieftain clamoured for redress, suggesting that 
the queen should give him Sussex's sister in order to 
humble the proud earl. 

Shane had to content himself without his English 
bride, but took vengeance on Sussex by assuming the 
sovereignty of Ulster. He was only opposed by the 
Scots Lords of Antrim, and became so powerful that 
he set free O'Donnell, who fled from his dungeon to 
the English Court and sought for shelter. Shane was 
now firmly established as a chief, and grew rich on 
the spoil of his enemies. He built a fort on an island 
of Lough Neagh, and named it Eoogh-ni-gall, or Hate 
of Englishmen ; he ruled well and maintained a kind 
of savage splendour in his dwelling with pipes of wine 
in his cellars and hundreds of men-at-arms feasting at 
his table. To show the chiefs respect for religion. 



42 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

there was always a royal banquet for beggars at the 
gate. 

In the North, Shane had no rival. Ulster was at 
peace while Munster was torn by a conflict between 
the Butlers and Geraldines, so fierce that through 
Tipperary, Kilkenny, and Cork, " a man might ride 
twenty or thirty miles nor ever find a house standing." 
In 1565, Sir Henry Sidney came to Ireland with 
the intention of crushing O'Neill, now grown bolder 
by success. He marched across Ulster, entered 
Tyrconnell, and restored the O'Donnells, leaving them 
to hold the North, while he passed into Connacht. 
So many English soldiers perished from disease that 
Shane decided to meet the native chiefs in battle, 
without fear of their new allies. He was defeated by 
the O'Donnells near Letterkenny, losing part of his 
army in Lough Swilly as they tried to escape, among 
these being O' Donnelly, his foster-brother, and the 
man " most dear and faithful to him throughout his 
whole existence." 

Shane fled by lonely passes to Tyrone and threw 
himself on the mercy of the Macdonnells. He 
brought them the wife he had captured, hoping to 
find favour with the lady's kinsmen, but they greeted 
her with the resolve to avenge her cruel treatment at 
his hands. Pretending friendship, they entertained 
Shane as a guest till two days had passed, when 
they bade him welcome at a supper in the camp of 
Cushendun. Then a warrior rose and flung a taunt 
at a follower of O'Neill. The chief sprang to his feet 
to answer the insult, and, hearing the slogan of the 
isles, sought madly for his weapon. The enemy fell 
upon him before he was prepared, and all around the 
dirks did their deadly work beneath the cold moon- 
light. Shane himself, gashed with fifty wounds, was 



SHANE THE PROUD, HERO OF THE NORTH 43 

wrapped in an old shirt and flung into a pit at 
Glenarm. Afterwards his head was hacked from 
his body and carried on the point of a spear from 
Drogheda to Dublin, where it was left to bleach on 
the battlements of the Castle. 



CHAPTER X 

SIR JAMES FITZMAURICE, REBEL 

IN 1566, Sir Henry Sidney became Lord-Deputy 
of Ireland. He proved himself a strong ruler 
and marched on a royal progress through the country 
after the death of Shane O'Neill, noting the general 
distress and poverty of the South and West. 

The houses of Desmond and Ormonde had long 
been engaged in deadly feud, though they were both 
sprung from the famous race of Geraldine. Their 
kinship was forgotten once they met in field of battle, 
flying their banners and shouting their war-cries after 
the manner of foreis^ner a^jainst foreifrner. Their 
raids and cattle-driving, wars and exactions of tribute 
were ruinous to the people they lived among, and an 
open insult to the queen, under whose government 
they should have kept tlie peace. Sidney thought to 
put an end to their brawling, at last, by the capture 
of the Earl of Desmond and his brother, who were 
shipped off to the English Court. 

The queen favoured Ormond, who was related to 
her own mother's family and had been the playmate 
of her young half-brother, Edward VI., whereas 
Desmond had never been on good terms with the 
English, and was suspected of disloyalty. Desmond, 
therefore, was made prisoner, and when he attempted 
to escape, his life was spared only on conditton that 
he gave up all his lands to the Queen of England. 
44 



SIR JAMES FITZMAURICE, REBEL 45 

Englishmen were sent out to take up confiscated 
estates, but some of them ventured on plundering the 
favoured family of Ormonde. Their treatment of the 
natives was so cruel that fear and rage caused many 
to take up arms. 

Sir James Fitzmaurice, cousin of the Earl of 
Desmond, was one of the first to head a rising. Even 
Ormonde, who was now in England, declared that he 
should not remain loyal to England if the land of 
faithful subjects was given up to marauders. 

Ormonde was pacified, but Fitzmaurice carried on a 
vigorous skirmish with the Deputy, retiring to the 
mountains and making sallies to get plunder and burn 
towns, then retiring to some remote place before any 
one could capture him. 

Sir John Perrot, President of Munster, boasted that 
he would soon have " that fox out of his hole," but he 
found it hard to make good his words. After Fitz- 
maurice had successfully opposed him for many 
months, he suggested that they should have a fight to 
decide the matter, but the Irishman refused, knowing 
that his death would leave the rebels without a leader 
of mark. He held out staunchly, till money and men 
failed, when he consented to kiss the President's sword, 
in the church of Killmallock. 

In 1575, Fitzmaurice went to France, hoping to 
win support. The French were pleased to see him, 
and made many fair speeches, greeting him in Paris 
as King of Ireland. He found, nevertheless, that 
they were slow to follow up their promises, and set 
out for Rome to seek an audience from the Pope. 
Elizabeth was, of course, under the papal displeasure, 
and her enemy was encouraged in his revolt against a 
Protestant. The Pope pardoned a number of wild 
Italian robbers,j who spent their time infesting the 



46 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

roads where travellers journeyed. These were placed 
at Fitzmaurice's service, as good fighting men. Dr 
Nicholas Saunders, an English Catholic, also joined 
the Irish expedition, and attempted to persuade Philip 
of Spain to take up the cause of his religion against 
Elizabeth. Philip thought the rebellion was doomed 
to failure, but he allowed Stukeley, an English traitor, 
to fit out a fleet in Spain. Stukeley was heart and 
soul for the Roman Catholic cause, his enemies declar- 
ing that he aimed at the red hat of a cardinal. 

He was not to be depended on in a crisis, and was 
too rash for a leader. He touched at Lisbon on his 
way to Ireland, became mixed up in a quarrel that 
led to the battle of Alcanzar, and fell fighting for 
Sebastian, King of Portugal, disloyal to his own queen 
and country to the last, but with all his wounds in 
front. 

The Italians perished with Stukeley, and Fitz- 
maurice did not regret their loss, saying to Saunders, 
" I care for no soldiers ; you and I are enough. 
Therefore, let me go, for I know the minds of the 
people of Ireland." When he landed in Munster, he 
tried to raise an army of Irishmen, but in the end had 
a mixed company of Itah'ans, Spanish, Flemish, and a 
few English soldiers. There were men in Elizabeth's 
own kingdom not satisfied with her religious views, 
and these followed Fitzmaurice. The rebel leader 
landed at Dingle in triumph, for there was only one 
poor ship in Ireland to oppose him. One of his foes 
describes his landing bitterly : " The traitor upon 
Saturday last came out of his ships. Two friars were 
his ancient bearers, and they went before with tvvo 
ancients. A bishop with his crozier-staff and mitre 
was next to the friars. After came the traitor himself, 
at the head of his company, about one hundred, and 



SIR JAMES FITZMAURICE, REBEL 47 

went to seek for flesh and kine, which they found and 
so returned to the ships." 

Fitzmaurice crossed from Dingle to Smerwick, 
where he constructed a fort that became famous as 
the stronghold of the Desmond rising. John and 
James Fitzgerald, brothers of the Earl of Desmond, 
joined him, but the earl himself had too great a 
dread of English power after his three periods of 
captivity. The younger lords of the Pale knew 
no fear, and declared for Fitzmaurice, the leader 
who had inspired the South of Ireland with frenzied 
expectation. 

The rebels brought papers with them from Rome, 
declaring that they fought for the glory of God, 
and Saunders did his best to give a religious aspect to 
the rising. He described Elizabeth constantly as a 
wicked woman, who insulted the papal power by her 
rule and was a mere usurper of the throne of England. 
Meanwhile, Spaniards, French, and Englishmen 
worked steadily at the entrenchments of the fort of 
Smerwick, making the prisoners assist them. Every- 
thing seemed to be in favour of the rebels when a 
sudden quarrel deprived them of their leader. 

Fitzmaurice was in Connacht, trying to gain more 
followers and using all his efforts to win Burke to his 
side. Burke refused in words that reflected on the 
honour of all who fought against their queen. A 
fight ensued in which Fitzmaurice met his death at 
the hands of a musketeer who had marked his yellow 
doublet. He met death coolly, entreating his friends 
to cut off his head as soon as he knew that he was 
mortally wounded, because he feared mutilation by the 
enemy. His end was as the knell of doom to the 
rising of the Desmonds. The English general, Lord 
Grey of Wilton, put down the rebellion with harsh 



48 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

determination, shrinking, in spite of himself, at the 
butchery he ordered his soldiers to perform. 

The Earl of Desmond was hunted through the 
mountains, and stabbed mortally in the humble cabin, 
where he had taken refuge. Of all that splendid race 
of Geraldine, only one sickly child was left. He was 
known by the name of the Tower Earl, from which 
his fate can easily be guessed. 



CHAPTER XI 

MR SECRETARY SPENSER 

WITH Lord Grey De Wilton, in his camp at 
Smerwick, was a young English Secretary 
named Edmund Spenser. For services to the country, 
Spenser received a grant of 3000 acres of land in the 
county of Cork. He was one of the men known as 
" undertakers," because they undertook to displace the 
natives of Ireland and to look after their forfeited estates. 

An " undertaker " paid no rent and was allowed 
many privileges, but his position was not a very happy 
one with the old possessor living in the same district and 
often making raids to get back his property. It must 
have been hard, too, to behold the pitiable distress of 
Munster, once the most fertile part of Ireland, now a 
desert. 

Spenser had certain duties to perform for his queen, 
but he had still time for writing poetry in his castle of 
Kilcolman. He was already a famous poet, and had 
written the Shepherds' Calendar and some beautiful 
verses to a lady he admired before he met Elizabeth 
Boyle, who was married to him at Cork. Spenser 
did not find in Ireland many literary men, such as he 
had been accustomed to meet at the splendid court of 
Elizabeth, but an official named Ludovic Bryskett, 
who was also a translator of Italian writings, invited 
him to a gathering at Dublin, where the company 
consisted principally of lawyers and soldiers. It was 
4 « 



50 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

there that Spenser promised to write the wonderful 
poem of the "Faerie Queene." It is now one of the most 
famous poems in the EngUsh language, and the story 
can interest even children too young to understand the 
full beauty of the verse. Spenser wrote it in honour 
of Elizabeth, whom he dubs Gloriana ; he praises other 
noted people of the time, and describes Lord Grey under 
the character of Arthegall. 

The " Faerie Queene " has traces of its origin in lines 
which picture the scenery of Ireland. Spenser speaks 
of the glen of Aherlow, in Munster, as though it had 
once been singularly blessed by prosperity but then 
laboured under a dreadful curse. Robbers, indeed, 
lived in the beautiful woods near Aherlow, and later 
on, two chiefs — Owen Macrory and Tyrell — lurked in 
these woods until they found an opportunity to attack 
the castle where the English poet lived. 

Spenser's life was saddened by dread of such 
neighbours — perhaps that is why he admires Lord 
Grey, the man most capable of protecting English 
settlers through his stern rule over the natives. Yet the 
lonely and neglected poet had more time for dreaming 
than when he lived at the court in London, where there 
was always much bickering and jealousy among the 
courtiers, and a man had to be ever looking how he might 
best gain some advantage over his fellows. The glorious 
beauty of the land also gave the poet the power to 
write of woods and glens as few have written. He 
always had a view of surpassing loveliness before him 
though it was bare enough of men and women. 

The first three books of the " Faerie Queene " were 
composed under difficulties. A friend of the poet's, 
one Gabriel Hervey, might have discouraged Spenser 
from completing it by his belief that it was not of 
high merit, had not another friend expressed the 



MR SECRETARY SPENSER 51 

warmest admiration. This was Walter Raleigh, who 
had come to live at Youghal, which was not too far from 
Kilcolman for willing neighbours to ride backwards 
and forwards to pay visits. Walter Raleigh had met 
the poet at Smerwick while both were working under 
the Lord- Deputy, one with sword and one with pen. 
Raleigh had fallen into disgrace with the queen in 
1589, and gone to take up estates in Ireland like 
many another Englishman of adventurous spirit. He 
lived at an old house, not unlike the farm where he 
was born in Devon, and learned to love it on that 
account. It was a romantic dwelling with an under- 
ground passage connecting one room with the tower 
of St Mary's Church ; it had rich carvings and low 
ceilings, and a splendid library where the exiled 
courtier studied. Raleigh was a poet and a dreamer, 
and many of his later exploits were probably planned 
in the peaceful time he spent at Youghal. He had a 
fine garden where he planted great yellow wallflower 
and cedars and cherry trees, and he also introduced the 
potato and the tobacco plant. He amazed his world 
when he returned from a voyage to America with 
smoke issuing from his mouth, but other men soon 
followed his example, and the Irish learnt to smoke, if 
they could afford to buy tobacco. It was a luxury of 
the rich in those days, and even enthusiastic devotees 
were troubled by the expense of their new habit. A 
certain Captain Bodley writes eloquently in defence 
of the practice. " Almost all have but one argument, 
that would make a dog laugh or a horse burst his 
halter, saying that neither our sires or grandsires took 
tobacco, yet lived I know not how long. Indeed they 
lived till they died without tobacco, but who knows 
whether they would not have lived longer had they 
used it." 



52 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

Spenser describes his first meeting with Raleigh 
in exile in a poem, " Colin Clout's Come Home 
Again " — 

" One day, quoth he, I sat (as was my trade) 
Under the foote of Mole, that mountain hore 
Keeping my chief amongst the cooly shade 
Of the green alders by the Mullae's shore. 
There a straunge shepheard chaunst to find me out. 
Whether allured with my pipe's delight. 
Whose pleasing sound y shrilled far about 
Or thither led by chaunce, I know not right : 
Whom when I asked from what place he came. 
And how he hight, himself he did yclepe 
The Shepheard of the Ocean by name, 
And said he came far from the main sea deepe." 

Through the influence of Raleigh, the " Faerie Oueene " 
was completed, and Spenser went to the English Court 
with the first three volumes as soon as they were 
written. After he had presented them to Elizabeth, 
the poet returned to Kilcolman, thankful to be away 
from the bustle of town life. 

In 1596, Spenser wrote a prose account of the 
condition of Ireland in that time. His duties as an 
Enelish official caused him to see much that was 
painful, and his sympathies were not with the Irish 
people. He disapproved of many customs that were 
naturally astonishing to a foreigner, and had scant 
admiration for the appearance of the natives. He 
denounced the loose mantles worn by both men and 
women as " a fit home for an outlaw, a meet bed for a 
rebel, and an apt cloak for a thief" Another English- 
man, Sir Peter Carew, appears to have thought the 
same mantles very useful, for he asked that all his 
soldiers might be provided with them, seeing that the 
cost was only five shillings and the garments " were of 
great comfort both in sickness and health." 



MR SECRETARY SPENSER 53 

Spenser very much disliked the " ghbb," a kind of 
mat into which the hair was twisted. The " ghbbs " 
came down low over the eyes, and Spenser said they 
were as useful as mantles to conceal a thief. " For 
whensoever he hath run himself into that peril of 
the law that he will not be known, he either cutteth 
off his glibb quite, by which he becometh nothing like 
himself, or putteth it so low down that it is very hard 
to discern his thievish countenance." In a treaty 
between the rebel Tyrone and the English, it was 
specially stipulated that none of his people should 
wear the " glibb," so the dislike of that fashion was 
not confined to Spenser. 

The bards were blamed in " The View of the Present 
State of Ireland " for stirring up rebellion and keeping 
barbarous customs. They were often rewarded 
lavishly, and could be very mocking about hosts 
whose entertainments did not please them. Spenser 
was bitter on their choice of evil subjects, and on their 
loose way of writing. They seem to have chosen evil- 
doers for particular praise, and to have gloried in 
actions best left without comment. " As of a most 
notorious thief, a wicked outlaw, which had lived all 
his time of spoils and robberies, one of their bardes in 
his praise will say, that he was none of the idle milke- 
sops that was brought up by the fire-side, but that 
most of his days he spent in arms and valiant enter- 
prise, that he did never eat his meat before he had 
won it with his sword, that he lay not all night 
slugging in a cabin under his mantle, but used 
commonly to keep others waking to defend their lives 
and did light his candles at the flames of their houses 
to lead him in the darkness." 

Spenser felt contempt for such writers because he 
himself would never stoop to pervert his gifts, but used 



54 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

them to glorify the right and true. All through his 
great allegory runs the belief that evil will be con- 
quered by good, and might by purity. He dreaded, 
we imagine, the power of these bards, and no doubt he 
blamed them when the disaster he had foreseen at last 
came upon him, and he was driven, a homeless fugi- 
tive, from the Castle of Kilcolman, leaving all that was 
precious to him in the hands of rebels, now taking 
vengeance on an English " undertaker." 



CHAPTER XII 

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE STATE OF IRELAND 

SPENSER drew in his book the Ireland that he 
knew, a country under the heel of a conqueror, 
before whom all prosperity soon vanished. His was 
the time of Ireland's downfall — he had never known 
that glorious age when envy followed her mercantile 
success. Not altogether blessed for Ireland was the 
trade of the fourteenth and fifteenth century, which led 
her nearest neighbours to bring about her ruin. 

If Spenser had visited those great fairs of thriving 
Ireland, he would surely have walked in wonder among 
merchants, clad in gorgeous apparel of silk and finest 
cloth, that aped the highest civilization of a European 
court. In silk hose and rich tunic the prentice ruffled 
by his master, mincing daintily in long, pointed shoes, 
tied by silver laces. The women bore on their heads 
high piles of home-spun linen, but they were by no 
means satisfied with the products of their own accom- 
plished hands. They must have brave Italian fashions, 
and for great occasions even cloth of gold. 

Women, held in high esteem during the age pre- 
ceding conquest, were wont to preside with dignity at 
banquets, where they sat in converse with the learned 
of the land. They were taught foreign tongues and 
wise Irish proverbs, in which their own virtues were 
extolled. They would have summoned Spenser to 
their houses, furnished with costly luxury, and vied 

55 



56 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

with the later Eh'zabethans in the board they spread 
for him. Wine from hot southern countries was 
always poured for an honoured guest, and, as he 
partook of choice fruits and spices, the singing of the 
bards struck sweetly on his ears. Spenser might have 
regretted still more the baseness of their fall, if he had 
seen the high estate in which every poet once lived 
secure. 

Or, in a more humble dwelling, the same guest 
would have found the mistress busy at her loom, but 
not too much occupied to neglect the great duty of 
hospitality, which the Irish of that day all practised. 
She would offer whatever food the household afforded, 
and think it a disgrace to her bounty if the stranger 
visited an inn. 

Perhaps Spenser would have chosen for a visit the 
famous fair held at Eniscorthy on Great Lady Day. 
He could then have proved his skill in tongues by 
parley with the merchants who came from foreign 
lands, eager to exchange their wares for those of Irish 
manufacture. Wandering down the splendid road 
that led towards the town he would have met, among 
the merchants, pilgrims bent on more pious errands to 
some monastery. Highways had been laid waste 
when Spenser lived in Ireland — they made the way 
too easy for a conqueror. He found his path a rough 
one when he went to visit Raleigh, yet he could have 
chatted to the pilgrims without a thought of danger. 
And Spenser would have received as well as given in 
talking to the learned men who went about the 
country in that time. The great warriors themselves 
were often scholars, and collected libraries to satisfy 
their own love of books as well as to provide for the 
tastes of scholar-guests. 

Raleigh was not the first student iq Ireland to 



VIEW OF THE STATE OF IRELAND 57 

ponder over foreign writings. Were not the Earls of 
Kildare famed for gifts both Hterary and warhke, and 
had not even a wild O'Neill more than once shown an 
inclination for gentler pursuits than raiding ? When 
Spenser visited the western coast, he must have stood 
to watch the sun set over the broad Atlantic, and seen 
ships of curious aspect in the harbours as well as more 
familiar sail. Stone houses and stone piers in such 
towns as Galway and Sligo are silent witnesses of 
Ireland's former trade by sea. The exploits of Irish 
sailors have been overshadowed by the fame of Eliza- 
bethan sea-dogs, but their day was one of high renown. 
A woman, one Grania O'Maille, of a race of sturdy 
mariners, as valiant as the best, swept the western 
sea with two hundred fighting men at her command. 
She took her husband with her on these voyages " for 
she was as much by sea as land more than Mrs Mate 
with him." 

The harbours showed fewer sails when the strife by 
land waxed grim ; the smith forged weapons for use 
instead of to display his skill in artifice ; the cattle, 
lowing of old in fertile orchards, had to browse on 
scanty pasturage ; the hum of looms was silenced by 
the piteous shrieks of housewives and their children. 

Commerce, under the restrictions of new laws, was 
crushed by the sheer tyranny of conquest. Learning 
decayed since it was made too difficult for a people 
who suffered cruel domination. 

As the hands of all Irishmen learnt to wield weapons 
in their own defence, the generations following ceased 
to possess the ancient skill in manual labour. 

Spenser spoke of benefits received from English 
rule, and hinted that the long, protracted warfare added 
but a shade of blackness to the former misery of 
Ireland. He knew the country in his misfortune and 



58 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

never loved it, because he mistook for national char- 
acteristics the reign of despair that succeeded the age 
of pride and plenty. Elizabethan Ireland had been 
stricken with her death-blow in the very flower of a 
splendid civilization. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE FLIGHT OF THE EARLS 

THE last revolt against Elizabeth in Ireland was 
one that shook the English power to its founda- 
tions. It was led by Hugh O'Neill, son of the 
O'Neill who had been dispossessed by Shane. He 
was a very different man from his relative —a courtier 
and a favourite of Elizabeth, who allowed him to 
assume the title of Earl of Tyrone. He had served 
in the English army with Lord Grey, and knew some- 
thing of English affairs from long residence in that 
country. Two grievances urged him to rebel. His 
brother-in-law, Hugh O'Donnell, had been treated 
with the utmost cruelty and treachery by the English 
government, and he was himself persecuted by the 
accusations of Bagnall, the Lord-Marshal, because he 
had carried off Bagnall's sister as a wife. 

A fierce battle was fought at Yellow Ford, on the 
Blackwater, a river bounding the territory of O'Neill. 

It was a victory for the rebels, and added many 
followers to their ranks. It really seemed as if the 
Irish were to cast off English domination in that year 
of triumph, i 598. 

Elizabeth, much alarmed, sent out her best generals, 
and she grudged neither money nor men in her old 
age to Essex, one of the favourites of the court. Many 
think Essex failed to subdue the Irish because he was 
too merciful to starve them into surrender, the only 

59 



6o TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

course likely to be followed with success. Lord 
Mountjoy came to take his place when he went home 
in disgrace, and the reign of severity began. The 
English army marched through Ireland, burning, 
destroying, putting to the sword. Old and feeble, 
women and children were killed as well as soldiers. 
Hardly a speck of green was left, hardly a single 
blade of corn. The people became gaunt scarecrows, 
too weak to oppose the invader now that they cared 
more for food than deliverance from servitude. 

Tyrone's might declined as Mountjoy retook town 
after town that had fallen into the hands of the rebels. 
When the Spanish landed at Kinsale, hope rose for 
a brief moment, but Mountjoy surrounded the town 
with all his forces and it was given up to him after a 
short struggle. It was the end of the rebellion. 
Tyrone had to accept terms dictated by the English 
and was never satisfied with them, though he was 
allowed to keep his lands and titles on condition that 
he would form no further alliance with foreign powers. 

On Elizabeth's death, her successor. King James I., 
invited Tyrone to the English Court. He sailed with 
Mountjoy, in 1603, and had a narrow escape from 
shipwreck off the Skerries. He was not well received 
in England by the country people, who blamed him 
for the deaths of brave young English soldiers 
devoured in great numbers by the Irish war. Many a 
bereaved parent came out to hurl missiles or abuse at 
him as he drove through villages where there had been 
heavy loss. He was not warmly welcomed at the 
court by the nobles who had spent hard days in his 
pursuit. They did not care to have a former enemy 
as their companion, and Sir James Harrington was 
bitterly affronted when he saw the Irish chief sitting 
at table in a place of honour. " How did I labour 



THE FLIGHT OF THE EARLS 6i 

after that knave's destruction ! " he cries. " I adventured 
forth by sea and land, was near starving, ate horse-flesh 
in Munster, and all to quell that man, who now smileth 
in peace at those who did hazard their lives to destroy 
him." 

Tyrone had fallen on evil days. He returned to 
Ireland to find himself unpopular as a defeated rebel. 
When he quarrelled with other chiefs, those in authority 
managed to put him at a disadvantage, for there was a 
strong suspicion that he would rebel again. "Artful 
Cecil " is said to have coveted the possessions of 
Tyrone, and in 1607, a plot was discovered in which 
the old chief was implicated by a document dropped 
at the door of the Dublin Council-chamber. 

After a quarrel with O'Cahan, the English govern- 
ment ordered the foes to come to court for trial. 
Tyrone dared not face the hostility of foreign nobles, 
and resolved to take refuge in another country which 
he had not cause to shun. His son served in the 
Spanish army, so it was easy to hire a ship with Spanish 
gold. The ship, laden with salt, was brought to the 
Irish coast on a pretence of fishing. 
■ Tyrone was paying a farewell visit to a friend, and 
took leave of the whole household so tenderly that 
they marvelled, for he was not a kindly man and had 
told nobody of his intended voyage. He went to his 
own house of Dungannon for two nights, and took his 
wife with him when he set out for the ship in waiting 
near the coast. She slipped from her horse in the 
wild flight and declared that she would go no further, 
but the Earl drew his sword and swore he would kill 
her if she did not come and that with a more cheerful 
countenance ! The chief, Tyrconnell had already 
arrived at Rathmullen when the Earl came up with 
his reluctant partner. About one hundred persons 



62 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

embarked with the chiefs, chiefly from the families of 
O'Neill and O'Donnell. Lady Tyrone went with her 
husband, but Lady Tyrconnell refused to leave Ireland, 
and steadily repudiated all share in the disloyalty of 
the fugitives. She was sent to England as a prisoner, 
and her beauty roused such admiration there that 
King James was heard to wonder how Tyrconnell 
could have left so fair a face behind. 

The ship was crowded and provisions soon ran short, 
while the fugitives were pursued by English cruisers. 
They reached France, but were not allowed to enter 
Paris. At the same time the French King, Henri IV., 
refused to surrender the Irish chiefs, for he was of the 
same religion and would not help the Protestants. 

At Douai a warm welcome awaited the exiles, 
Tyrone's son meeting them with all the captains under 
his command. The Irish students of the University 
were ready to feast their countrymen with an accompani- 
ment of Greek and Latin speeches. Tyrone received 
the younger men into his own regiment, but the old 
Earls had to wander into Spain, where they could not 
find a refuge. They crossed the Alps to Italy, and 
were entertained by the Governor of Milan till they 
found a more permanent resting-place at Rome. 
Here the Cardinals treated them as men who had done 
well for the Roman Catholic cause. Tyrone had always 
made a grievance of Protestant persecution, though he 
was only religious when it suited him. Unlike some 
of the Irish chiefs, he was able to restrain himself from 
rushing out of church " like a wild cat " as soon as the 
sermon began, but that restraint was probably due to 
his civilized life at the English Court rather than to 
a desire to hear preaching. James I. issued a pro- 
clamation for the benefit of foreign potentates, stating 
that Tyrone and Tyrconnell had fled from the con- 



THE FLIGHT OF THE EARLS 63 

sequences of their crimes, and had not the sHghtest 
reason to pose as CathoHc martyrs. 

The Earls Hved at Rome in a palace that was given 
them by Paul V. They had every honour, but did not 
thrive away from their own country. After a few years' 
foreign residence they died, and were buried in the 
Franciscan Church of St Peter at Montorio. " Rome, 
indeed, was dear to them, but Ireland was still dearer, 
and the exiled Celt, whether expatriated through force 
or stern necessity, lives only to long for the old home 
or die weeping for it." 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE COLONIZATION OF ULSTER 

ON the flight of the Earls, all their land was 
seized by the Crown because they were held 
disloyal to King James. In fact, more land than they 
had ever ruled fell into the hands of English govern- 
ment. Six counties were seized by order of the 
king — Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Cavan, Fermanagh, 
and Armagh. These were to be " planted " with new 
owners, as though Ireland were a half-known country 
with savage inhabitants. Antrim and Down were 
already occupied by the Scots from the Western 
Highlands, who had often been tempted to cross the 
sea for the sake of plunder. The chief of these Scots, 
Sir Randall Macdonnell, was created Earl of Antrim. 

James did not mean to repeat the mistakes that the 
English had made in planting other parts of Ireland. 
He saw that the grants made to the " undertakers " of 
Munster had been far too large, and that the plan 
of allowing English and Irish to live together in 
friendly fashion would never do in Ulster, since it had 
made the *' plantation " of Leix and Offaly a failure. 

James intended to send to Ireland a party of 
strong men, able to rule the natives and stamp out the 
Catholic religion. They must all be firm Protestants 
and firm believers that English ways were best. They 
ought to be sufficient protection for themselves against 

the natives because they were united on all important 

64 



THE COLONIZATION OF ULSTER 65 

points. They would only receive small grants of land 
so that there could be no excuse for hirine the 
assistance of the Irish. As a further help to the 
" undertakers," James resolved to ship off the Irish 
gentry who had only been trained for the noble occu- 
pation of fighting. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden 
was glad to have some of them for soldiers ; the rest 
were moved from Ulster to different parts of Ireland. 

There was no lack of men eac^er to take advantaefe 
of this new opening in life. Shrewd Scots and 
practical Englishmen saw that fortunes might be made 
for their descendants, if they took advantage of James's 
offer. Few of the settlers had any desire to fight or 
plunder. They took across the sea tools and farm- 
implements instead of swords. Among them were 
farmers, merchants and weavers, who hoped that they 
could carry on their occupation in a new country with 
greater success than in the old. Land was sold at a 
ridiculously cheap rate — it had cost nothing to the 
king, who disposed of it right royally 

The buyers had to fulfil certain conditions when 
they took their land. A man, who received a grant of 
any size, was obliged to build a castle or mansion- 
house on his estate within four years and he had also 
to introduce skilled w^orkmen, farmers, and labourers as 
tenants. James hoped that this industrious population 
would prove peaceful ; he was most unwilling to breed 
a crowd of idle adventurers in Ulster. Trouble had 
been caused too often by the Irish notion that fighting 
was the finest way of earning a livelihood. 

In practice, it was impossible to carry out one of 
these conditions. The settlers found that they 
needed more help on their farms than they had 
brought with them, and quietly employed hands that 
were sentenced to idleness by the king. Many of the 
5 



66 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

Irish thus remained in the part of Ireland, where they 
had been brought up. 

The settlers in Ulster were zealous and active men. 
They soon overcame the idea of the natives that it was 
a degradation to soil the hands with anything but 
blood, while there was a chance of warfare. They 
built towns and settlements, and made their settle- 
ments hum with the sound of spinning-wheels, worked 
by the hands of women. A trade in live cattle was 
established with the English port of Bristol, wool was 
exchanged in the south of Europe for wine grown in 
the vineyards. Traders from half the ports of Europe 
came to Cork to buy salt fish, salt butter, and salt 
meat. The native Irish had already forgotten their 
busy times of trade. They looked with wonder at 
the brisk transactions of their masters — a kind of list- 
lessness had come upon them, only to be dispelled 
by a very stirring conflict. 

The Corporation of London and the twelve city 
guilds agreed to take up the whole country of 
Coleraine, and to hold the forts of Derry (hence 
Londonderry), Culmore, and Coleraine. King James 
encouraged this enterprise by creating a new order of 
baronets, for he was lavish in bestowing titles. They 
bore on their coat the Bloody Hand of Ulster, which 
had been shown hitherto on the shield of an O'Neill. 
James always gave in the hope of return, and each of 
the men receiving titles had to pay for the three years' 
service of a soldier in Ulster. Men who had held 
military appointments in the late wars were rewarded 
by special grants of land, and all that class who were 
known as " servitors " because they held some place in 
the service of the king. 

Under a new order the population of Ulster in- 
creased rapidly, and strangers seemed to grasp the 



THE COLONIZATION OF ULSTER 67 

natural wealth of Ireland better than the Irish. Soon 
districts of Ulster showed the smiling pastures of 
former days, before soldiers had ridden through the 
land, intent on spoil. The undertakers were proud 
of the results of their labours, but the displaced Irish 
had little reason to be pleased with the success of 
King James's plantation. They left their land re- 
luctantly, hinting at their sense of injustice by slow 
movements as they took a few belongings to the 
leaner districts, where the struggle with the soil was 
hard. The gentry found shelter of some kind, though 
life had no joy for them henceforward. The mass of 
the people looked wildly to discover a place where 
they might lodge in safety. They knew too well the 
barren soil of Munster and Connacht, and took the 
miserable tracts of land with bursting hearts. Some 
died of sheer despair, and others crept back to Ulster 
and begged for the meanest labour under the masters 
of their old homes. The promise to make provision 
for all the men of Ulster had been broken, and that 
faithlessness was fiercely cherished till the hour of 
vengeance came in 1641. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE SCOURGE OF WENT WORTH 

THE hopes of Catholic subjects turned very 
naturally towards the son of James I., because 
he had married a French Catholic princess, and was 
thought to favour her religion. A deputation from 
Ireland sought an early opportunity of waiting on 
Charles I., and offering him a very large sum of money 
if he would grant religious and civil freedom. Fifty- 
one articles, known as the " Graces," had been drawn 
up to state the grievances, which were burdensome to 
the Irish. The king was so anxious to have money 
that he accepted these terms readily, and received 
part of the bribe at once. He promised that an Irish 
Parliament should give the force of law to this agree- 
ment, but this was one of the many promises that 
Charles did not keep. 

Charles had a favourite scheme of ruling the three 
different parts of his kingdom by his three devoted 
ministers. Archbishop Laud was to rule England 
under his own direction, Hamilton was to bind 
Scotland to his will, and Wentworth was to find in 
Ireland the means of overawing his English subjects, 
if they broke into revolt. Charles expected Went- 
worth to gain a great revenue from Ireland and to 
train an army in that country, ready to march against 
the English at short notice. He chose his men well. 
Wentworth had already ruled the north of England 

68 



THE SCOURGE OF WENTWORTH 69 

with a firm hand, and had gained much profit for the 
king. He was one of the RoyaHst party in England 
after the death of Buckingham, the favourite who had 
once swayed the king by his sHghtest freak of fancy. 
Once advanced to high honour, Wentworth did not 
look back to the hour when he had defended the 
liberties of Parliament. He was now bent on making 
the royal power supreme throughout the king's 
dominions. He had determined, when he set out for 
Ireland, to show certain unruly patriots in the English 
Parliament how meek and obedient to the will of a 
sovereign a Parliament could be made. 

Wentworth became Lord-Deputy in 1633. He 
ruled fairly well as long as the king's interests were 
not opposed in any way. A heavy hand crushed the 
new nobility of the plantations when these seemed 
inclined to flaunt their patents too proudly, and the 
petty tyranny of great landowners knew control at 
last. Wentworth made the shipping trade secure, by 
sweeping swarms of Algerian pirates from the sea ; 
he was careful to import Flemish weavers, and to 
encourage flax-spinning, when he destroyed the Irish 
woollen trade as dangerous to the prosperity of 
English merchants. Nevertheless, it was soon clear 
that he placed the well-being of the Irish much lower 
than the absolute sway of the king, his master. He 
set about his work without the slightest regard for the 
injuries he inflicted on a nation that was too weak to 
resist him effectually. 

Wentworth's first step was to summon an Irish 
Parliament so cleverly " packed " that it contained 
about the same number of Protestants and Catholics. 
He took care to have a handful of military men 
returned as members so that he could gain his way 
by force, if necessary. He opened Parliament in 



70 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

Dublin with a ceremony and magnificence that had 
never been seen before. He then proceeded to 
address the House in a loud, bold voice, demanding 
money, and warning the members " not to mutter and 
mutiny in corners." He promised that there should 
be two sessions of Parliament, one for the Crown, 
which was to deal with the voting of money, and one 
for the Irish, in which the " Graces " should be con- 
sidered. Wentworth had his session first, and bullied 
the members into granting money, but refused after- 
wards to perform his promise of attending to the 
claims of Ireland. 

Wentworth's attention was next directed to the 
church. He intended to establish the form of service 
which Laud favoured, and took no thought for the 
opinions of Catholics, Presbyterians or Low Churchmen. 
They were all to worship according to High Church 
doctrines. The Church of Ireland certainly needed 
reform — buildings were in ruins, parish priests often 
lived in beggary. Only evil and ignorant men would 
consent to take livings in a church, which had been 
robbed of its endowments. In Connacht a vicar was 
seldom paid more than ^40 a year, while some of the 
bishoprics were only worth £$0 a year. 

The Deputy ordered a commission for repairing the 
churches and recovering Church property. The Earl 
of Cork was obliged to disgorge tithes and lands, 
belonging to the College of Youghal and the see of 
Waterford, to the value of ^^2000 a year. Wentworth 
called the Bishop of Killala to the Council-Chamber, 
rated him soundly, declaring that he " deserved to 
have his rochet pulled over his ears," and wrote jubi- 
lantly to Laud that he had so " warmed his old 
sides " that the bishop had been obliged to give up 
the attempt to sell Church lands. Wherever it was 



THE SCOURGE OF WENTWORTH 71 

possible, Wentworth introduced a more elaborate form of 
service, adopting Laud's plan of moving the communion 
table from the body of the church to the east end. 

Wentworth next attacked the landlords of Connacht, 
and proved by old documents that their land was the 
lawful property of King Charles. He went in person 
through Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo, alarming the 
juries till they gave verdicts for the king in sheer 
terror. He met resistance in Galway, where the 
people were devoted to the Earl of Clanricarde. He 
held his court in the earl's own castle at Portrumna, 
where he fined the sheriff and imprisoned him for 
bringing together an obstinate jur}-. The men still 
gave verdicts for the landowners in spite of this. 
They were fined ^^4000 apiece and sentenced to 
imprisonment till they either paid the fines or altered 
their decision. The sheriff died in prison, the Earl 
of Clanricarde sank into the grave with shame and at 
length complete submission was given to Wentworth's 
imperious demands in Ireland. 

The powerful Deputy was approaching his own 
downfall. In 1641, Charles sent for him in haste to 
join in plans for suppressing the Parliamentarians, who 
had taken up arms against the king's tyranny. 
Wentworth held council with the Royalists and went 
back to Ireland again to find men and money for the 
coming strife. He had no difficulty in wresting what 
he wanted from the cowed and beaten natives. 
The Irish Parliament owned him master and 
promised to furnish Charles with grants of money 
and a well-provided army. Wentworth, now Earl of 
Strafford, hastened across the Channel, well satisfied 
with his visit. He found that the king had betrayed 
him by signing a treaty with the Scots and that he 
was left to face the hatred of Parliament. 



;2 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

At Strafford's trial, witnesses crowded to hear 
evidence of tyranny. Many came from Ireland — 
Connacht landowners, castle officials, Presbyterian 
pastors — the weight of accusation fell heavily against 
the fallen minister. England and Ireland watched 
the trial with the same excitement, for Strafford's 
character was such that even tyrants had bent before 
him. Rejoicing burst forth when the public learnt 
that Charles had signed the Bill of Attainder that 
sent his most faithful adherent to the scaffold. 



CHAPTER XVI 

OWEN ROE O'NEILL, PATRIOT 

IRELAND had the appearance of a subdued nation 
when Strafford met his fate, but below the surface 
there was a terrible thirst for vengeance on the govern- 
ment which had sent the tyrant and given him 
authority. The plantation of Ulster had been followed 
by laws forbidding Catholics to have their own religion. 
Now Sir William Parsons, the deputy succeeding 
Strafford, threatened that very soon there should not 
be a single Catholic left in Ireland. A frenzy of 
horror ran through the Irish, who expected nothing 
less than general massacre. 

In 1 64 1, a leader from one of the noblest Irish 
families came forward. Rory O'Moore became the 
popular hero of the hour and " For God and Our 
Lady and Rory O'Moore " was now the watchword of 
the rebel party. O'Moore's attempt to capture Dublin 
failed, but it was followed by a general rising in Ulster. 

An O'Neill, as was natural, led this party, and 
nearly every town in Ulster fell into the hands of the 
rebels. Scant mercy was shown to the Protestant 
settlers by Sir Phelim O'Neill, a man of cruel nature. 
The " undertakers " fled panic-stricken whenever they 
could escape from his butchery. Reports of a horrible 
massacre in Ulster reached England, and the English 
people rose in condemnation of the crime. Sir Phelim 
and his men were too ready to exact vengeance but 

7i 



74 TALES FROIVI IRISH HISTORY 

the Irish, as a nation, hotly resented the records of the 
massacre, which the English historian, Carlyle, speaks 
of as " a huge blot, an indiscriminate blackness." 
They defended their own treatment of the settlers 
and declared that the soldiers conveyed them to places 
of retreat. Many priests, certainly, were well known 
to have sheltered English suppliants under their very 
altar-cloths and to have sacrificed their own lives for 
those who threw themselves upon their mercy. 

From Ulster the rebellion spread farther. At the 
end of 1 64 1 the Pale was up in arms, and with the 
exception of Dublin, Drogheda, and some of the seaport 
towns of the south and west and a (ew crarrisoned 
places of the north, the whole of Ireland was in the 
hands of rebels. 

O'Neill was too incompetent a leader to follow up 
his first success in Ulster. The towns he had taken 
were lost one by one while his own followers deserted 
him. Matters were in a desperate state when Owen 
Roe O'Neill landed in Donegal Bay at the head of one 
hundred officers. 

He was not a true O'Neill, but the grandson of 
Matthew of Dungannon and nephew of the banished 
Earl of Tyrone. Red Owen, as he was called, was 
by far the noblest of his race. He had served as a 
soldier in Spain so gallantly that he gave up a high 
command in the Spanish army to go to the help of his 
distressed country. Had he ignored the claims of 
Ireland, there is no doubt that Owen would have 
gained everlasting fame in the annals of military 
exploits. It was the supreme test of his nobility when 
he gave up all thoughts of his own advancement and 
came to take a place among men fighting for their own 
interests and opposed to him in every aim of life. 

O'Neill set to work at once to drill the Irish armies 



OWEN ROE O'NEILL, PATRIOT 75 

and bring them into order. The troops were no 
longer allowed to plunder as they travelled through 
the country. They drove their own cattle before 
them, and pastured their herds on the enemy's lands, 
knowing it had once belonged to their fathers. For 
seven years the army could boast that they 
demanded nothing at the sword's point, yet never 
lacked provisions. They never lost a battle and never 
mutinied against their leader. When their renown 
had travelled far, both France and Spain asked for 
Irish recruits to join their armies. 

Owen became the supreme commander of the 
Ulster party, whose great object was to win back 
national independence. There were three other rebel 
parties in Ireland — the Anglo-Irish nobility, who 
demanded civil and religious freedom but did not wish 
to be separated from England ; the Puritan party, 
which joined the Scotch Presbyterians and was anti- 
Irish ; and the Royalist party headed by Lord Ormonde 
who engaged in the struggle of King Charles against 
his Parliamentary enemies. 

Owen O'Neill wished to unite with the Anglo-Irish 
party. A meeting was held at Kilkenny to bring 
about this union, and it was decided that war must be 
waged for the glory of the Catholic religion and the 
destruction of the Protestants. Loyalty to King 
Charles was eagerly proclaimed, a printing-press 
set up to issue proclamations and a mint established 
for coining money. In 1643, when truce had been 
made for one year, Irish forces were sent to Scotland 
to help the king's cause. Thanks to O'Neill's training, 
these soldiers won unbounded praise, and struck such 
terror into the king's enemies that they carried all 
before them. 

In 1645, the pope sent a messenger to Ireland to 



76 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

preach the Catholic cause. Rinuccini, Archbishop of 
Fermo, was supported by O'Neill, but he cared nothing 
for King Charles and denounced the peace that was 
concluded between the king and the rebels. He 
preached so eloquently against it that heralds sent to 
Clonmel and Waterford to proclaim the peace were 
driven from those towns. At Limerick, the mayor 
himself was beaten for attempting to proclaim it. 

The pope's messenger was delighted with his first 
success. Protected by Owen O'Neill, with ten thousand 
men behind him, he made a public entry into Kilkenny, 
drove the Supreme Council from the Council Chamber 
and flung them into prison. When a new council was 
elected, Rinuccini was at its head. 

Meanwhile, news came to Ireland that Charles had 
been captured by his subjects and intended to ask 
help from the Irish. His supporters rallied to his 
standard but were ingloriously defeated by Owen Roe 
at Benburb on the Blackwater. The Scotch and 
English suffered a heavy loss in this battle while 
O'Neill lost only seventy men. He never engaged in 
conflict unless he was certain of superiority to the 
enemy. When the rebel leader of the south had 
failed to take Dublin, the command of Leinster was 
given to Owen Roe, but the council actually declared 
war against him rather than give him the command of 
Munster. Now O'Neill was beset by jealous rivals, 
who distrusted his motives, so much purer than their 
own. Quarrel succeeded quarrel in the rebel camps, 
and at last O'Neill decided to make terms with the 
English Parliamentary party against the Royalists. 
Ormonde had been obliged to leave Dublin and cross 
to France, where the queen and her children had taken 
refuge. He returned to raise a new army, bringing 
with him Prince Rupert, the king's gallant nephew. 



OWEN ROE O'NEILL, PATRIOT jj 

Royalists came to Ireland as fast as sails could bring 
them, trusting firmly in Prince Rupert to save the 
crown for Charles I. 

It was too late for the most determined resistance. 
A new treaty was to be drawn up, promising a free 
Parliament and repealing laws against the Catholics, 
but before this was proclaimed, the tidings came that 
King Charles had suffered the death sentence. Still 
the Royalists refused to give up hope. Charles's 
eldest son was proclaimed as Prince of Wales at Cork 
and Waterford. Rebels from different parties flocked 
to Ormonde's standard. He welcomed them all, but 
his great desire was to win over the first general in 
Ireland, Owen Roe O'Neill. Overtures were not 
immediately successful and O'Neill's last days advanced. 
He hastened his march though he was so ill that he 
had to be carried on a litter, and when he lay on his 
death-bed he sent part of his army with advice to Lord 
Ormonde as to the best way of conducting the war. 
He died at Cloughouter in Cavan from mortal injury, 
which he received from a pair of poisoned boots 
presented to him at a banquet. 

Cromwell, the English Parliamentary general, came 
to Ireland with victory assured to him now that the 
only man, who could have saved the country, was 
taken from it in the time of direst need. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE CURSE OF CROMWELL 

THE conflicting parties united for the moment to 
meet the general, who came as a soldier of God 
to take vengeance on God's enemies. 

Oliver Cromwell was a Puritan of the sternest type, 
high-principled, upright, hard of judgment. With him 
came the soldiers he had drilled into an almost invincible 
army. They were fresh from conquest in England and 
their minds were intent on making the rule of Parlia- 
ment avail against both Papists and Malignants, as men 
were called if they supported the doomed king's family. 
Ireland must have seemed strangely chaotic and tur- 
bulent to Cromwell's " Ironsides." They looked scorn- 
fully at the quarrels rending different parties, and saw 
that the new alliance could not last. 

In all Ireland only two towns had declared for 
Cromwell when he first set foot in it — Dublin and 
Londonderry. The first blow Cromwell struck at 
Drogheda, a garrison Ormonde had believed impregn- 
able. The town was taken, the garrison put to the 
sword, and all in arms were slain. Some of the soldiers 
fled to S. Peter's Church steeple, which was set on fire 
by Cromwell's orders. Those who escaped death 
were shipped to the Barbadoes to work as slaves in the 
plantations. Sir Arthur Ashton, the governor, was one 
of the first to fall. " All the friars were knocked on 

the head but two." 
78 



THE CURSE OF CROMWELL 79 

Cromwell wrote military dispatches to England 
describing the siege of Drogheda, and with satisfaction 
as "a righteous judgment of God, on men who had 
been guilty of the Ulster massacres." He expressed 
the hope that it " would prevent more innocent blood 
being shed." 

After the death of Owen Roe, Cromwell marched 
on Wexford. The townspeople would not have sur- 
rendered at his orders but Captain Strafford betrayed 
the Castle. The troops put ladders to the walls of 
the town, scaled them and rushed on the Irish in the 
market-place. It was a desperate skirmish, for the 
English gave no quarter. A party tried to escape by 
boat and were sunk and drowned to the number of 
three hundred. Some two thousand men had been 
killed when the town was given up to plunder. Crom- 
well reported that his soldiers " got a very good booty 
in this place." 

Such ruthless measures struck terror into the native 
population. Town after town surrendered to the 
victorious general. Then the English sent out a fleet 
to drive Prince Rupert from the Irish coast and 
blockade the different ports. 

In the winter, Cromwell rested so that his troops 
might recover from disease, caused partly by the 
moisture of the climate. He found it easy to obtain 
supplies from the country people, because he paid for 
what he got and punished his soldiers whenever they 
took anything by force. A man in his service was 
hanged for stealing a fowl from a peasant's cabin, and 
this served as a deterrent to the others. 

In March, Kilkenny was besieged by a strong 
Parliamentary army. Quarrels had broken out in the 
Royalist ranks, and Hugh O'Neill, successor to Owen 
Roe, was hardly as brilliant a general. Sir Edward 



8o TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

Butler held Kilkenny for eight days in spite of sick- 
ness in the garrison. The soldiers finally marched 
out with all the honours of war and the town capitulated 
to Cromwell. 

Waterford resisted stubbornly and Cromwell was 
obliged to leave Ireland before he had conquered the 
garrison there. There was rebellion against the 
Parliamentary party in Scotland and there he marched 
in 1650, leaving his son-in-law, Ireton, as Deputy of 
Ireland. The war dragged on for two years before 
Waterford finally surrendered. 

Ireton and Coote, who had helped to subdue 
Ulster, advanced against Limerick, defended resolutely 
by Hugh O'Neill. When this town was taken the 
rebels lost all hope. Ormonde could fight no longer 
for he was unpopular as a Protestant and had to leave 
Ireland before news was brought that Prince Charles 
had tried to win over the Scots by a declaration 
against Popery, the religion of his mother. 

The plantation of the island began as soon as 
conquest was complete. Grants of land had been 
promised to the soldiers, whose tenure was secured by 
the banishment of natives. Punishment was meted 
out with the utmost severity to all who were suspected 
of any part in the massacre of Ulster. Sir Phelim 
O'Neill deserved his fate because he had brought 
shameful dishonour on his nation but many innocent 
persons suffered with him. Parliament did not believe 
in half measures. Death or banishment disposed of 
numberless Irishmen, who would have been in the 
way of the faithful Puritans, who succeeded to their 
territory. 

The disbanded soldiers were so likely to be 
dangerous that they were shipped off to Spain, Poland 
and Austria, which were glad to have such recruits. 



THE CURSE OF CROMWELL 8i 

Over 30,000 crossed the seas, leaving wives and 
children to a fate far more dreadful than involuntary 
exile. These were sent to the Barbadoes, where they 
began a terrible new life in slavery. The merchants 
of Bristol had dealt in human sale and barter when 
the first conquest of Ireland was begun. They sent 
over agents to seize Irish women and children, who 
would prove a valuable source of income. This horrible 
transportation was carried on as a regular business, 
delicate high-born ladies being taken with their tenants 
and servants, for the men engaged in the work heeded 
no plea for mercy. Between six and seven thousand 
had already been transported when some English 
women were captured by mistake, and some limits had 
to be imposed on such transactions in consequence of 
the indignation that was felt by men who had not 
troubled about the hapless Irish. 

The gentry had to leave their property before a 
certain date, which did not allow much time for 
preparation. In the middle of harvest, the drum 
sounded that was to send them into banishment. 
The penalty of death was to fall on any man found 
lingering on his estate after the order of banishment 
was issued. Winter advanced and the time of the 
journey advanced too quickly. There was every 
likelihood of famine if the new year's crop could not 
be sown. Even the Parliamentary soldiers, so ready 
in general to do their work, asked for more time that 
the exiles might gather together what was needful. 
A short respite was given to the sick and aged before 
the exodus began. Across bad roads in wet, wild 
weather they tramped with the gloomiest forebodings 
of the life awaiting them in the waste lands across the 
Shannon. Stragglers were arrested and imprisoned 
in answer to the impatient demands of the adventurers, 
6 



82 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

who would not wait long for their lands. The walled 
towns gave up a stream of emigrants, and people of 
English blood saw that Ireland was not safe for them. 
Merchants of Cork and Waterford crossed to foreign 
ports and carried on their trade while Galway, once 
the centre of a flourishing Spanish commerce, was 
bestowed as a gift on the citizens of Liverpool and 
Gloucester in return for men and money supplied to 
the Parliamentarians during war. 

Dr Petty, physician to the Parliamentary forces, 
undertook the formal survey of Ireland. He received 
large grants himself which came back oddly enough 
to native possession when his daughter was married to 
the Earl of Kerry. The land was desolate indeed 
after one-third of the population had been expelled. 
Fields lay waste and so many wolves infested the land 
that a reward of five pounds was offered for the head 
of a full-grown wolf and two pounds for that of a cub. 
They came sometimes to the very walls of Dublin. 

Old inhabitants still remained in spite of every 
precaution. Young and hardy men escaped into the 
woods, and took to the life of robbers. A price was 
set by government on the heads of these desperate 
" Tories." Bands of soldiers sent to capture them 
often adopted the plan of smoking them out of caves, 
as if they had been savage animals. Savage they 
undoubtedly became in time, and a continual source of 
danger to the settlers. Catholic priests, too, lurked 
in the country against the command of Parliament and 
were driven to strange shifts. Disguised in various 
costumes they led a hunted life for the sake of 
performing secretly the offices of their religion. 

The plantation was a failure. No laws could prevent 
the constant intermarriage with the Irish who 
remained. Many of these had taken the meanest 



THE CURSE OF CROMWELL 83 

service in their old neighbourhood rather than face the 
unknown privations of Connacht, where all inhabitants 
were divided from their former territory by a ring of 
armed men. Within forty years of the plantation of 
Ulster, children of Cromwell's soldiers were proclaim- 
ing the ill-success of the attempted banishment by 
tongues which showed ignorance of a single word of 
English. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE 

AFTER Cromwell died, Prince Charles duly came 
to the throne of England in 1 660, and managed 
to stay there till his death, because he was crafty 
enough to study the prejudices of his subjects. His 
brother James, who succeeded, gave great offence to 
the Puritan party by declaring himself a Papist. 
He was soon at war with his Protestant malcontents, 
and had finally to leave England and seek the help 
of any nation in sympathy with the Catholic cause. 

Louis XIV. of France was the most powerful 
monarch of his time, He would fain have brought 
England under the rule of the Pope and promised 
therefore to aid James H. by money and men. He 
also extended a warm welcome to the Royal Family 
at his court. 

Ireland, hoping for the restoration of the Catholic 
power, declared for James. The Irish had no reason 
to declare war on William, Prince of Orange, who was 
to be king instead of his father-in-law, King James, 
but they had heard that he was a staunch Protestant, 
and feared his rule in Ireland. 

As soon as it was decided to fight in the camp of 
James II, Tyrconnell, the Lord-Deputy of Ireland, 
issued a call to arms. All good Catholics now decided 
that William of Orange should find the Irish difficult 
to crush. A few towns declared for the Protestant 
84 



THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE 85 

party because their inhabitants held strong reHgious 
views in favour of the Protestant reh'gion, among 
these being Londonderry, Sh'go, and Coleraine. 

Tyrconnell mustered an army ready enough to brave 
death, but so ill-equipped that their enemies described 
them with a sneer : " Some had wisps of hay or straw 
bands instead of hats, others tattered coats or blankets 
cast over them, without any breeches. Stockings and 
shoes were strange things. As for shirts, these proved 
a miracle." 

James resolved to lead his troops in person, and 
landed in Kinsale Bay in 1689. He had a royal 
welcome from the people, who looked at him " as if 
he had been an angel from heaven." They crowded 
to meet him in such numbers that the road to Dublin 
looked like some great fair, and in many places the 
peasants threw down their frieze coats to save the 
hoofs of royal horses from the mud. James had 
become accustomed to cold receptions from his subjects 
of England, long before they banished him. He must 
have been touched by the gay festivity of the streets 
of Dublin, that Palm Sunday when he entered it in 
state to the sound of Irish harps and bagpipe, the peal 
of bells and the boom of cannon. Householders had 
flung forth their richest treasures of silk and tapestry 
to adorn the balconies of buildings, where loyal citizens 
stood to cheer King James, treading roads made ready 
for his passage with the bridal tribute of flowers and 
green branches. 

In Dublin, the king held council before advancing 
on Derry, where the inhabitants had made preparations 
to withstand a siege at the hands of the Catholic army. 
The town held out gallantly, and the garrison were 
reduced to such extremities before it was relieved, that 
the sight of a fat man within the walls roused the 



S6 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

starving citizens to anger. The siege of Derry lasted 
from 20th April to 31st July 1689, the brave conduct 
of the defenders rendering it for ever memorable in 
history. 

William of Orange sent out one of his generals in 
August, the Duke of Schomberg sailing up Belfast 
Lough with a fleet of ships. He followed Schom- 
berg in the following year with a mixed army of 
English, Dutch, French, Danes and Scotch, all men 
well used to warfare. The Protestant Irish hastened 
to enrol themselves under William's banner while his 
arrival was the signal for a fresh outburst of loyalty to 
King James on the part of the Catholics in Ireland. 

William marched straight to the River Boyne, where 
he found the enemy waiting for him. " I am glad to 
see you, gentlemen," he said, " if you escape me now, 
it will be my own fault." 

The Protestant forces were far more numerous than 
those which James had mustered. Their leader decided 
to pitch his camp on the heights of TuUyallen, from 
which he could watch the movements of the enemy 
and keep his own men under cover. The Irish 
Catholics lay on the Meath side of the river, camping 
about the Hill of Donore. 

At midnight, William rode through the camp to 
give his last orders to the troops. He was a delicate 
man and the long march had wearied him, but spirit 
flashed from his eyes, which shone bright and piercing 
in his pale face. A big plumed hat, flowing wig and 
long jackboots were revealed by the flare of torches, 
showing his picturesque figure in strong relief against 
the blackness of night. He told the soldiers to wear 
green sprigs in their hats to distinguish themselves 
from the Catholic Irish, who had adopted the white 
cockade of the French, in honour of allies sent by 



THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE Zy 

Louis XIV. Henceforward, green was the revolu- 
tionary colour of Ireland, and Orange the symbol 
of a true Protestant in that country. 

The battle began shortly after sunrise with the 
thundering of William's guns. He directed the fire of 
the battalions himself, keeping the greater part of the 
army under cover. The Irish fought against great 
odds, without the necessary guns to fire back at the 
enemy, without a general in supreme command, with- 
out previous military training to fit them for such a 
contest. James was a coward at heart, and was 
planning his own retreat to Dublin while his men 
desperately faced some of the finest soldiers in Europe, 
and thought only of the cause. 

At last, William gave orders for an attack on Old- 
bridge, the village near the river on James's side, now 
occupied by Tyrconnell and his dragoons. Schomberg 
was in charge of the main body, and the King led the 
left wing, consisting chiefly of mounted men, over a 
deep ford near Drogheda, which could not be crossed 
by infantry. 

" Suddenly the bugles rang out and from the mouth 
of William's glen appeared the Blue Dutch Guards. 
Down they came at the double in the hot July sun- 
shine, straight down to the Boyne, marching in column, 
drums beating, colours flying, and fifes, they say, 
screaming the insulting tune of Lillibullero, followed 
by the French and Enniskillen Foot. The Dutch took 
the river highest up the stream, the French and Ennis- 
killeners dashing into the water by Grove Island, 
through the reeds and osiers of which they struggled. 
Then came Sir John Hanmer and Count Nassau with 
their regiments ; and lastly Danes and Germans, who 
had probably come down by the eastern defile, where 
the water was up to their arm-pits. In a few minutes 



88 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

the river was full of men, fighting the sullied stream in 
the excitement of their first reckless onset." 

The Irish ought to have fired while the enemy were 
in difficulties but they delayed too long and then fired 
so hastily that half their shots did not take effect. 
They were driven back as the Dutch came ashore and 
scattered in different directions while skirmishes took 
place at the river fords for more than an hour. 
Hamilton, the gallant leader of the Catholics, would 
not own that King James's cause was lost. He made a 
last splendid charge at Plotin Castle, eight miles south 
of Oldbridge and there he was met by William, sur- 
rounded, and taken prisoner. 

The Irish were compelled to retreat after fighting 
with the greatest courage and determination. James 
followed out his prudent plan of flight to Dublin, as 
soon as he saw that his own side was doomed to 
failure. Arriving at the castle-gates at about ten 
o'clock at night, he was met by Lady Tyrconnell. 
" And after he was upstairs, her ladyship asked him 
what he would have for supper. Who then gave her 
an account of what a breakfast he had got, which 
made him have little stomach for his supper." 

James complained, with more than a touch of 
ingratitude, that his troops had run away, but Lady 
Tyrconnell would not listen to such dispraise of her 
country people, and answered dryly, " But your 
Majesty won the race." 

The Lord Mayor and Council of Dublin were 
summoned once more to meet James in consultation. 
It was a very different meeting from the first, which 
had been held in a city decked so gaily in honour of 
the sovereign, who was now inclined to leave the 
citizens to shift for themselves. James knew that 
Louis XIV, would receive him at St Germains, and 



THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE 89 

did not wish to stay longer in Ireland. He advised 
the men of Dublin to submit to William of Orange 
and to set their prisoners at liberty. He then sailed 
for Brest, and proceeded to the court of the French 
king, which was, after all, a gayer refuge than he 
could have found elsewhere. 

William HI. arrived in Dublin on 4th July 1690. 
He found the people in better spirits than he expected, 
because they regarded his famous victory of the Boyne 
as little more than a drawn battle, and had good 
reason to hope that King James would send them 
help from France to continue the struggle against a 
Protestant monarch. 



CHAPTER XIX 

PATRICK SARSFIELD, DEFENDER OF LIMERICK 

THE cause of the Irish CathoHc found a champion, 
after the Battle of the Boyne, in the person of 
Patrick Sarsfield. He was an officer of James's army, 
with a name of noble renown and a long record of 
distinguished service. Rory O'Moore was an ancestor 
of whom Sarsfield was particularly proud ; on his 
mother's side the family was said to be so ancient 
that they traced their descent from Ir, son of Milith, 
who had given his name to Ireland. Sarsfield had 
led a life of roving adventure before he took service 
with King James. He had been trained in a French 
military college, but his first commission was in the 
army of Monmouth, a natural son of Charles H. 

In 1685 he had fought against Monmouth at the 
Battle of Sedgemoor, taking the side of James II., 
King of England. As an ensign he had once carried 
the golden fleur-de-lis of France, and fought with 
equal courage for Louis XIV. He first rose to 
distinction as a leader in his own country, though he 
did not share the laurels of Hamilton at the Battle of 
the Boyne. He did good service by garrisoning 
Galway during the war, and by his efforts Connacht 
remained loyal. 

Sarsfield refused to agree with those of the Catholic 
party, who would have made terms with William of 
Orange when the rival king had fled. He said that 



PATRICK SARSFIELD 91 

the cause remained the same whether James led the 
army to battle or a general on the same side. He 
induced the troops to defend Limerick, likely to be 
besieged by William when he left Dublin, because it 
was the second town in Ireland at that time. 

French officers remained in Ireland to sneer at 
Sarsfield's hopeful projects. Lauzun, the French 
Marshal, laughed at the idea of defending Limerick. 
" Why should the English," he asked, " bring cannon 
against fortifications that could be battered down with 
roasted apples ? " Sarsfield was not the man to yield 
to ridicule. He went on fortifying the town by earth- 
works thrown up beyond the usual defences, and made 
up his mind to fight without the French, who were led 
off to Galway by Lauzun. 

On the 9th of August 1690 the siege of Limerick 
began. The day after William appeared before the 
walls Tyrconnell followed the French to Galway. He 
had lost his reputation as a bold leader, and no longer 
cared to take an active part. The second command 
in the war had already been given to Sarsfield, who 
was left to sustain a siege with his Irish Foot. 

Limerick was then one of the largest towns in 
Ireland ; the houses were of stone, strongly built and 
protected by battlements, and there were high walls to 
serve as a natural defence. William perhaps despised 
it unnecessarily, like Lauzun, for he left his battering- 
train on its way from Dublin, and hoped that Limerick 
would surrender without much waste of gunpowder. 
He pitched his camp on the Munster side of the 
Shannon in the district called Singland or Sois Angel, 
because S. Patrick was said to have seen an angel 
there. 

A French gunner deserted from William's army 
and told the enemy that a battering-train was on its 



92 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

way to Limerick. Sarsfield determined that he would 
meet it before it could reach the town, and he 
managed to surprise the camp by a lucky accident. 
It was easy to find the soldiers in charge of the train, 
but not so easy to evade the outposts stationed on 
guard. At night nobody was allowed to pass a 
certain place without giving the password, which was 
often changed. One of Sarsfield's men met the wife 
of a Protestant soldier of William's army, and acted 
as a guide through a lonely part of the country. She 
was a simple, unsuspecting woman, and in conversation 
soon let out the secret that the password for the 
night was " Sarsfield." 

When Sarsfield reached the enemy's outposts he 
was challenged, gave the word, and was allowed to 
pass. A second man challenged him at the camp. 
He exclaimed, " Sarsfield ! Sarsfield is the word, and 
Sarsfield is the man ! " After he had killed the 
astonished sentry, he rushed on to fire the train, which 
exploded with such force that the noise could be 
heard in William's camp outside Limerick. 

Sarsfield gained much glory from this exploit, and 
the Irish were encouraged to defend Limerick when 
they heard that the dreaded powder could now do no 
damage to their walls. 

On 17th August the attack was begun in deadly 
earnest by William's grenadiers, who, in their dress 
of " piebald yellow and red," seemed very outlandish 
warriors to the Irish. The furred caps which 
they wore gave them the fierce aspect of beasts of 
prey. They threw the Irish into confusion, and 
served to keep the advantage till William's new 
battering-train came up, when he opened a tremendous 
fire on the city. Within a week breaches had been 
made in the defences, and the men working in the 



PATRICK SARSFIELD 93 

trenches had to wear woolsacks as a protection. The 
people in the houses of Limerick had terrible adven- 
tures, for shot frequently pierced the walls and did 
fatal damage. For nearly ten days the inhabitants 
kept off the besiegers, but the grenadiers, with one of 
their irresistible charges, broke through the defenders 
at last and made their way into the town. They did 
not escape without hurt in spite of the victorious 
onset. Women boldly hurled stones and broken 
bottles, and even dared to go nearer to the enemy 
than their own men. 

William was satisfied with the breaking-down of 
the defence, and left the people of Limerick to destroy 
their earthworks, while he sailed back to England. 

Sarsfield enjoyed the favour of James II. after his 
long struggle for the cause. He was made Earl of 
Lucan, Viscount of Tully, and Baron of Rosberry. 
All his honours, nevertheless, could not help him to 
keep the peace among his party, which was rent by 
quarrelling and even mutiny. 

In 1691, S. Ruth, the French general, was defeated 
at the terrible Battle of Aughrim. Sarsfield retreated 
with the remnant of his army, and once again pre- 
pared to defend Limerick from siege. Some French 
engineers had been at work there, and the town could 
boast better fortifications than when Lauzun had 
spoken of destroying them with roasted apples. 

William's general, Ginkel, was left to besiege 
Limerick under very hard conditions. The war had 
already cost so much money that William warned 
him to expect no more help from England. He would 
have been glad to make terms with Sarsfield, but the 
Irishman had learnt to distrust the enemy's faith, and 
was determined to hold Limerick to the last. He 
was alone as a leader when Tyrconnell died, just 



94 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

before the siege began, and his dearest friends and 
allies were proving treacherous. Even Henry 
Luttrell, whom he had trusted before all other men, 
was found to have furnished Ginkel with information. 

The second siege of Limerick was carried on 
without much spirit, for Ginkel cared little for victory. 
The first shell in the city killed Lady Dillon, wife of 
the ex-Governor of Galway, and wounded several 
others. In the following month Irish soldiers appeared 
frequently in Ginkel's camp as deserters. The rest 
held out doggedly, always expecting the arrival of the 
French, who were to help them. The sails of those 
French ships were awaited through weary days of 
watching. But behind the walls treachery was so rife 
that Sarsfield was obliged to make terms with the 
enemy. On 23rd September, the drums beat a parley 
round the walls of Limerick, and the white flag of 
truce was hung out. Two days after the agreement 
was concluded, a French fleet sailed into Dingle Bay. 

Sarsfield had to leave Ireland, defeated but not 
dismayed. He had it in his mind to strike another 
blow for King James one day, and so crossed to 
France, where he took service again under Louis XIV. 
Other men followed him, cherishing the same hope. 
Exiles, known as the " wild geese," winged their way 
across the channel long after William of Orange died. 
Ireland was no happy home for a Catholic after its 
conquest by the Protestant king. 

Sarsfield fought on so valiantly that he was re- 
warded by a Marshal's bfiton. At Landen, in 1693, 
he was struck in the breast by a musket-ball as he 
drove the enemy to the river. Mortally wounded, he 
fell to the ground, and putting his hand to the wound, 
saw it stained with blood. " Would to God this were 
shed for Ireland ! " he exclaimed, thinkinc^ to the last 



PATRICK SARSFIELD 95 

of that victorious army he was to have led in revenge 
of Aughrim. 

While he lived, Sarsfield struggled against the 
jealousy of allies, the faithlessness of friends ; but the 
Irish nation loved him, and his name will ever live in 
the hearts of all men who recognize the heroism of a 
dauntless patriot. 



CHAPTER XX 

DEAN SWIFT, "THE MOST POPULAR MAN IN IRELAND" 

THOUGH he was born at Hoey's Court, Dublin, in 
1 66j , Jonathan Swift was not of Irish descent, and 
always claimed England as his country. When only 
a year old he was taken to Whitehaven by his nurse, 
and kept there, through her great affection for him, till 
he was three. At that age he was able to read any 
chapter of the Bible, so that the time he spent in 
England was certainly not wasted ! Perhaps he learnt 
more in those first years of infancy than he learnt at 
Kilkenny School, where he became a pupil, or at 
Trinity College, Dublin, with which his connexion was 
not at all creditable. 

Swift's father had died before Jonathan was born, 
and his mother was " rich and happy " on i^20 a 
year. He had therefore to depend on an uncle 
with many children of his own, and thought himself 
very badly treated by this relative. He once told a 
friend that he had been given " the education of a 
dog." The friend's comment was that Swift certainly 
had not the gratitude of a dog or he would have 
refrained from abuse. 

Swift was still discontented when he became 
Secretary to Sir William Temple of Moor Park, Surrey. 
He said that he was treated like a servant, and had to 
sit at a different table from his patron, yet, while there, 

he met King William HI., who offered to make him 

96 



DEAN SWIFT 97 

a captain of horse and taught him the Dutch way of 
cutting asparagus. In later h'fe, Swift used this last 
accomplishment to the dismay of his guests. When 
Faulkner, the Dublin printer, was dining at Swift's 
house, he asked for a second supply of asparagus. 
The dean told him sharply to finish what he had on 
his plate. " What sir, eat my stalks ? " exclaimed 
the guest. " Ay, sir," replied Swift, " King William 
always ate his stalks." 

Swift had leisure for reading at Moor Park, which 
had a fine library. He began to write verses and sent 
some of them to Dryden, the famous poet and play- 
wright, but he was told bluntly that he would never 
have any success with his poetry. 

In 1694, Swift left Moor Park in a rage with his 
patron on account of some fancied slight and went to 
Ireland, where he took orders. He became a clergyman 
in the hope of obtaining fame and wealth, but he 
never neglected his duties and tried to raise the 
standing of the profession. The clergy had little 
honour in those times and hardly expected to be 
treated as gentlemen. Swift taught them not to be 
ashamed of poverty but to respect themselves so that 
others would respect them. When he was waited upon 
by all ranks of men, he was particular about wearing 
his gown and cassock, and never humbled himself to 
the rich. 

In March 1669, Swift was presented with the 
rectory of Agher and the vicarage of Laracor and 
Rathbeggan. He also had the prebend of S. Patrick's 
cathedral bestowed on him and for twenty years was 
never known to absent himself from morning prayers. 

In the reign of Queen Anne, Swift spent much time 
in London, where he was the friend of Addison and 
all the wits of the time. He had then written two 
7 



98 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

great satires — " The Battle of the Books " and the " Tale 
of a Tub." He was so drolly humorous that he con- 
vulsed society with laughter yet very rarely was seen 
to smile. His manners were harsh and overbearing, 
and betrayed the same contempt for mankind that 
can be seen in his writings. He sent the Lord 
Treasurer to summon the principal Secretary of State 
from the House of Commons. " For I desire," he said, 
" to inform him with my own lips that if he dines late 
I shall not dine with him." 

" I treat them like dogs," he wrote to a friend, 
" because I expect they will treat me so." 

Though Swift held no office in the state, he had a 
power in politics such as a man of letters has never 
had before or since. He was neither wealthy nor 
aristocratic, yet all the richest and noblest were at 
his feet. Statesmen courted him and great ladies 
were willing to forgive his rudeness if they could 
only persuade him to dine at their tables. The 
poor Irish priest had one of the most brilliant 
intellects of the time, and it gradually received a 
universal recognition. 

In 1 7 1 9, Swift began to turn his attention to 
Irish affairs. He issued a pamphlet proposing that 
the Irish should use their own manufactures instead 
of importing foreign goods. It was a protest against 
the injustice of the English government, which had 
passed a number of laws since 1665, all aiming at 
the ruin of Irish commerce. Prosperity was now 
impossible for Ireland. Flourishing villages had 
become waste places and thousands of poor people 
had to beg their bread. Famine stalked the land in 
its grimmest form, internal enmity tore the people. 
Catholics quarrelled with Protestants, Episcopalians 
with Nonconformists, Whigs with Tories. " There is 



DEAN SWIFT 99 

hardly a Whig in Ireland," wrote Swift, " who would 
allow a potato and buttermilk to a reputed Tory." 

Swift did not love the Irish nation, but the state 
of Ireland filled him with rage because he loved 
justice. He determined to appeal to the people 
themselves to bring about reform, and to place their 
country on the same political footing as Eno-land. 
The printer of Swift's first pamphlet was arrested, 
and Whitshed, the Chief Justice of Ireland, tried to 
compel the jury to bring him in guilty. After a 
long struggle, the case was dropped by order of the 
Lord-Lieutenant. This was a sign of the greater 
victory to be gained by Swift. 

In 1722, a patent was granted by the English 
government to William Wood to coin farthings and 
halfpence for circulation in Ireland. Wood intended 
to make a large profit by the transaction, but it was 
not the idea of loss to themselves, so much as the 
grievance that nobody in Ireland had been consulted 
in the matter of the coinage, that caused such general 
indignation among the Irish. In 1724, Swift began 
to publish the "Drapier Letters," supposed to be written 
by a draper, as an appeal to the middle and lower 
classes against Wood's farthings and halfpence. Why 
should Wood gain this profit, asked the draper, in 
defiance of the wishes of the nation ? Was it simply 
because he was an Englishman and had friends of 
high rank ? 

The country responded as one man to the appeal 
of the " Drapier Letters." Anybody who used Wood's 
coins was marked, and then cut off from all inter- 
course with his neighbours. Swift wrote further 
letters and it became clear that Ireland was to be 
incited to the defence of national liberties. " Were 
not the people of Ireland born as free as those of 



100 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

England ? " Swift asked. " Are they not subjects of 
the same king ? Am I a freeman in England and 
do I become a slave in six hours by crossing the 
Channel ? " Questions such as these roused the 
spirit of the nation. Meetings were held and clubs 
formed to pass resolutions against the receiving or 
tendering of Wood's coinage. Butchers and brewers 
met together for this purpose, and the very news-boys 
of Dublin— then known as "flying stationers." 

In the fourth letter, Swift threw off all disguise as 
to his real meaning. He declared that the Royal 
Family had no more right to ignore the feelings of 
Irish subjects than they had to impose what they did 
not want on the citizens of the mother-country. He 
denounced the custom of giving all the best positions to 
Englishmen, and said that all government without the 
consent of the governed was nothing better than slavery. 
Three hundred pounds was offered for the discovery of 
the author of the " Drapier Letters," Harding, the 
printer, was thrown into prison. When he was 
released without punishment, something had been won 
for Ireland. When the English put an end to Wood's 
patent in 1725, the writer of the famous pamphlets 
stood out as the man who had struck a most decisive 
blow for Irish independence. 

The whole island rang with the praises of Dean 
Jonathan Swift. Medals were struck in his honour 
and both men and women wore medallions and 
handkerchiefs imprinted with his strange sour face. 
When he appeared in the streets, all heads were 
uncovered to do him reverence. His birthday was 
celebrated with loud rejoicing. He became the idol 
of Ireland and might have known happiness, had he 
cared greatly for the admiration of his fellow-creatures. 
But Swift was even then the loneliest and unhappiest 



DEAN SWIFT lot 

of mortals. He wrote one of the most delightful 
children's books ever written, yet he had years before 
made a strange resolution " not to be fond of children 
or let them come near me hardly." " Gulliver's 
Travels " is tinged with a bitter dislike of mankind 
generally. It pleases children but it was not to give 
them pleasure that Swift wrote it. He proposed 
two years later that the children of poor people in 
Ireland should be eaten. Though he made this 
suggestion in mockery it was a horrible jest that 
showed how great a burden he thought a peasant's 
family must be. 

Swift was a man of gloomy nature, but a public- 
spirited man because he hated to see folly and baseness. 
" Good-night, I hope I shall never see you again," was 
his usual leave-taking to one friend. In his last verse 
he must needs fling a taunt at the country which 
worshipped him as a national hero. A new magazine 
had been built in an Irish town for the storing of arms 
and stores, and Swift wrote — 

" Behold a proof of Irish sense : 
Here Irish wit is seen, 
When nothing's left that's worth defence. 
They build a magazine." 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE SOCIETY OF UNITED IRISHMEN 

''r^HE American colonies had rebelled against 
X England and cast off her yoke in triumph, the 
people of France had risen against the nobility and 
robbed them of their power — it was a time when 
Irishmen thought they too must struggle for liberty. 
Grattan, a noble patriot, had gained the right of Free 
Trade for Ireland almost by force, lining the streets 
of Dublin with armed volunteers when the Irish House 
of Commons presented their demand to the Lord- 
Lieutenant. A still greater advantage for Ireland 
was gained by the repeal of Poyning's Law. The 
Irish Parliament might now pass laws without con- 
sulting the Parliament at Westminster. 

Still there was discontent in Ireland. Catholics 
were not allowed to sit in Parliament and most of the 
country were of the Catholic religion. The Irish 
Parliament could not do much for the country it did 
not justly represent, until reforms were made in the 
election of members. Societies were formed to abolish 
the political distinction between Catholic and Protestant, 
and also to obtain a full representation in Parliament 
of the whole Irish nation. Many of the Ulster 
Protestants wanted a republic entirely separate from 
England — they were encouraged in this desire by the 
example of the French. Catholics in the south were 
resolved to use force to gain their rights, if force were 



THE SOCIETY OF UNITED IRISHMEN 103 

necessary. It seemed to the advantage of these 
different parties to form one great society with two 
aims in common. The Society of United Irishmen 
was formed accordingly in 179 1. At first it was not 
hostile to the government, but certain disturbances, 
after its foundation, led to an order that it should be 
suppressed. After 1794, each member was bound to 
secrecy and was a rebel, in some sort, against the law. 
The two leaders of the society were Lord Edward 
Fitzgerald and Wolfe Tone. 

Fitzgerald was a man of high rank, a Protestant and 
an officer of some ability. The Irish followed him, 
partly out of respect for his family and partly from 
personal affection, for he was a very kindly man and 
he was to have command of the military forces, which 
showed towards the end of i 796 that the United Irish- 
men were no longer in favour of peaceful measures. 

Wolfe Tone was sent to France to ask for help in the 
struggle against English government. He spent some 
time in Paris, where he was struck by the gaiety and 
courage of the citizens, who had then got rid of king 
and nobles. He visited the theatre, he walked the 
streets, and everywhere saw soldiers as fond of amuse- 
ment as of fighting. At a fete in a French church, 
he noticed young men, just of an age to serve in the 
army, led up to veterans to receive arms while they 
listened to the strains of a new national anthem — the 
Marseillaise. A statue of Liberty had been placed before 
the altar, ablaze with candles, and the national colours 
of red, white and blue hung on the walls. Tone 
remembered the Irish regiments he had seen whenever 
he came upon the French Grenadiers in their gay 
uniforms, or observed the bouquet of flowers that 
a sentinel would place on his hat or even on his gun. 
The visit to Paris was a success, for Hoche, a brilliant 



104 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

French general sailed with a fleet to Ireland. In this 
fleet was Tone, who served under the name of Adjutant- 
General Smith. 

The expedition was unfortunate from the outset. It 
should have left the port of Brest on the i st of September 
I 796, but was not able to sail till the i 8th of December. 
One ship ran on a rock and sank, while others missed 
the way. Both Hoche and the admiral, Morard de 
Galles, were in the lost ships, and all the money for 
the war. A strong easterly gale not only threw the 
fleet into' confusion, but hindered the French from 
landing when they sailed into Bantry Bay. The men 
would have landed, for they " were close enough to 
toss a biscuit on shore," but they were obliged to 
spend Christmas waiting for the storm to go down, 
and then had to return to Brest. The last ship to 
reach harbour was the one with the general and 
admiral on board. They had never reached the 
country they meant to invade. 

If the French had landed, it is probable that 
their invasion would have been successful. The 
utmost terror had seized the Irish on the coast when 
they saw the fleet approach, and they could hardly 
have offered a valiant resistance to such experienced 
campaigners. England, indeed, might congratulate 
herself once more on the luck that so often protected 
her by gales and foul weather. The Republicans 
aimed at the destruction of the English navy when 
they came to the help of Tone. The death of Roche, 
in 1797, was, however, the end of real help from 
France to Ireland. Henceforth, the United Irishmen 
had to fight their own battles. 

In March 1798, martial law was proclaimed in 
Ireland. English soldiers now had the right of claim- 
ing free quarters everywhere. Notice was given that 



THE SOCIETY OF UNITED IRISHMEN 105 

the men of certain counties must give up all arms 
and ammunition within ten days. These orders were 
carried out so cruelly that the Irish sullenly prepared 
for rebellion. District after district was filled with 
soldiers, who hved on the best fare in any house that 
was suspected of disaffection. They searched every- 
where for rebel weapons known as " pikes," burning 
down any building that contained them ; they shot 
down all who resisted these searches, and carried off 
horses used for work on farm-lands ; they drove whole 
families from their homes without a single stick of 
furniture. Torture of every kind was used in the 
discovery of weapons. Blacksmiths were scourged 
almost to death for making pikes ; men with hair 
cut short after the fashion of Republicans were called 
" Croppies " and ill-treated by the soldiers. A cap 
was invented made of linen or thick brown paper, and 
fitted to the head with burning pitch so that it could 
not be torn off without dragging out hair and wound- 
ing the skin horribly. 

Even women did not escape the penalties of the 
suspected rebel. If they ventured to wear Republican 
green on their gowns, they were likely to have them 
cut from their backs when they met a company of 
soldiers. 

In February of 1798 about half a million people 
had joined the Society of United Irishmen. They 
agreed to take up arms at a signal to be given on the 
23rd of May, when the mail-coaches would be stopped 
by rebels in four different places at the same hour. 
Several arrests were made by government before this 
date, and a reward of ^looo was offered to anyone 
who gave such secret information as might lead to the 
capture of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the leading spirit 
of the conspiracy. 



1 06 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

Fitzgerald lay in hiding about Dublin, visiting his 
wife and children whenever he could don a woman's 
clothes and elude the watch set over him. He was 
too daring in his movements, or one of the society 
was a traitor. The government soldiers discovered 
the house, where he lay in bed, and came to seize 
him. In the scuffle that took place Fitzgerald was 
wounded by a bullet, and fever set in while he lay a 
prisoner. He died miserably from the effects of the 
wound, and never took part in the rebellion. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE REBELLION OF '98 

IN spite of the capture of their mihtary commander, 
the rebel flag was raised at the given signal. 
Dublin, Kildare and Meath were the first counties to 
defy the government. The first blow was struck at 
Naas, where the combatants met in battle. At Tara, 
the defeat of the rebels was a check on the rising of 
Meath. 

The outbreak in Wexford led to horrors, never to 
be forgotten in the annals of Ireland. The natives of 
this county had been prosperous and peaceful. They 
were chiefly the descendants of English settlers, and 
held aloof at first from the United Irishmen. Fear of 
massacre, and above all the oppression of Catholics, 
drove them to revolt, for the Catholics were in the 
majority throughout Wexford and had a leader in the 
curate of the parish, Father Murphy. 

Quarrels had been rife for some time between 
Catholic and Protestant of the lower classes. Secret 
plans were muttered in the chapels on Sundays 
while the trees were cut down in grim token of the 
general discontent. As soon as the pikes were made 
the rebels showed their intentions. They took the 
town of Eniscorthy, and went into camp on Vinegar 
Hill. It was a wild and picturesque sight, that camp 
of rebels, none of them trained soldiers or skilled in 

military organization. Tents of all shapes and colours 

107 



io8 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

dotted the ground — they had been hurriedly shaped 
from wattles and covered with tablecloths, curtains or 
blankets from plundered houses of the neighbourhood. 
A ruined windmill, afterwards of dreadful notoriety, 
stood in the centre of the camp, and from its summit 
waved the green flag of defiance. A few guns had 
been placed in a battery but this was a war of hand- 
made weapons. Pikes did deadly injury in all the 
battles of the year. The soldier fared well on pro- 
visions taken from the larders of the gentry, and often 
sprawled about the camp the worse for wine, stolen 
from the cellars of great houses. Numbers of women 
were gathered on Vinegar Hill, grown almost as 
merciless as the soldiers. Some of them boiled cattle 
in great copper brewing-pans outside the tents, while 
others played musical instruments they had found on 
some wild expedition of plunder. 

Vinegar Hill was the only settled camping ground 
the rebels had. The summer of '98 was unusually 
fine and the soldiers, who took this as an omen in 
their favour, often bivouacked on the bare earth with- 
out the shelter of a tent. Vinegar Hill was also the 
scene of some of the cruellest outrages of the year. 

Father Murphy followed up the success at Eniscorthy 
by an attack on Wexford. The inhabitants were 
terror-stricken, having learnt the nature of the rebel 
forces. They agreed to surrender, and many tried to 
leave the town before the enemy approached. In the 
frenzied escape by ships, more than one was found to 
prefer death by drowning to the mercy of the rabble 
that was soon pouring into Wexford. There were 
grotesque figures of men, adorned with the gayest 
attire from some fine lady's wardrobe — hats, feathers 
and tippets, especially those of a green shade, were the 
favourite articles of dress. The trembling inhabitants 



THE REBELLION OF '98 109 

of Wexford hastened to hang green from their windows, 
and pinned into their hats the green cockades. 

The rebels would have marched on Wicklow, 
if they had not been checked by the defeat of 
Newtown Barry. They had a kind of superstitious 
faith in their leader, Father Murphy. It was commonly 
reported among the soldiers that he could catch bullets 
in his hands without being hurt. He had led them 
into battle near Wexford, holding a crucifix aloft, and 
all the glory of the day was attributed to this. 

The battle of New Ross was the fiercest in the 
rebellion, raging from four in the morning till late in 
the afternoon. The rebels began by driving black 
cattle before them, to break through the ranks of the 
English. This stratagem served its purpose and the 
day opened victoriously for Murphy's men. Lord 
Mountjoy, one of the staunchest friends of the Catholics 
in former times, fell fighting for the government. 
Men ignorant of military tactics showed desperate 
courage at New Ross. One stood in the thick 
of the fight holding up a cross, and his com- 
panions paused to kneel down and kiss it before 
charging the enemy, as if inspired with fresh enthusi- 
asm. Women showed themselves as daring in actual 
warfare as on the looting expeditions. A peasant- 
girl went in and out among the rebels, supplying 
them with cartridges, apparently unconscious that she 
risked her life a thousand times. She was matched 
by the wife of a loyalist townsman, who chose to 
remain in New Ross alone after the other inhabitants 
had fled. Here she spent the day of battle mixing 
wine and water for the soldiers. At night the rebels 
were obliged to break and flee from the field, having 
lost about two thousand of their party. 

A dreadful outrage followed the battle of New Ross. 



no TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

Some Protestant prisoners, who had been placed In a 
barn at Scullabogue, were dragged out to meet the 
punishment of death, and then the barn was set on fire 
that none of them should escape. This massacre 
roused the government to a tardy sense of danger. 
Rebellion did not break out in the North as soon as 
was expected, considering that the Presbyterians of 
Ulster had been closely concerned with the Society of 
United Irishmen. Ulster had been placed under 
martial law before the other provinces, and the military 
kept a very strict watch on all signs of conspiracy. 
Then, too, the opinions of the people began to undergo 
a change, as reports came of that riotous Catholic 
rabble which plundered and murdered ruthlessly instead 
of drilling for battle. The men of Ulster were chiefly 
Protestants who had sympathized with Tone's desire 
for an Irish Republic, quite independent of England. 
They had pinned their faith to an alliance with the 
French, and saw the policy of France change with a 
sensation of dismay. They had no desire to establish 
a despotism, where the soldier ruled, a very tyrant, 
and slowly the dream of being free citizens was dis- 
pelled by the course of affairs abroad. Antrim and 
Down were the only northern counties to aid the 
insurrection. They broke out and were suppressed by 
government within a few days of their first rising. 

In the south, the decline of the rebellion dated from 
the defeat of the insurgents of Arklow. The camp at 
Vinegar Hill was stormed by reinforcements sent from 
England, and Wexford passed once more under the 
rule of government. Father Murphy died, but when 
or how he met his end has never really been 
discovered. 

A struggle went on in the Wicklow Mountains after 
the rebels had capitulated in other parts. The French 



THE REBELLION OF '98 in 

sent an expedition to their help, and Humbert landed 
in Killala Bay. Hoping to find trained soldiers, he 
found only a trampled peasantry, who were childishly 
eager to join him because they were attracted by the 
gay uniforms he brought, and the weapons they used 
as toys for shooting at birds or trees. Humbert 
failed through lack of any real support, and the same 
disaster fell on a third French fleet, which carried 
Wolfe Tone on board. The English took the ships 
and sentenced Tone to be hanged. He had always 
felt a horror of this shameful death and evaded it by 
taking his own life in prison. 

The rebellion was now at an end. The leaders had 
been punished and the peasants cowed into submission, 
when the birthday of King William HI. came round. 
As the conqueror who gave Ireland to the rule of the 
Protestant, his birthday had always been celebrated 
with great ceremony by the Orange party in Dublin. 
Processions and peals of bells, and the firing o{ 3. feu 
de joie bade the Protestant rejoice in his deliverance. 
Orange and blue adorned the statue of the king in 
Dublin, while his horse, decked with the same colours, 
trampled a green silk scarf, the emblem of the United 
Irish, in token that their cause, too, lay in the dust. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE UNION 

BEFORE the swords of the EngHsh soldiers had 
been sheathed again, EngHsh statesmen began 
to discuss the project of a union between England 
and Ireland. There had been talk of such a union 
long ago, and for a short time during the rule of 
Cromwell, thirty Irish members had gone regularly to 
sit in the Reformed Parliament at Westminster. 
With the downfall of the Commonwealth, this custom 
ceased and Irish members sat in their own Parliament 
at Dublin. 

In 1707, Scotland and England were united to the 
great advantage of the Scots, who were able to extend 
their trade in consequence. The English had not been 
very willing to adopt this measure but they were 
afraid of the hostile spirit of the Scottish Parliament. 
In the long run, they found that the union had not 
caused them any real loss. Even before 1707, the 
Irish Parliament had proposed that it should join the 
English Parliament and, when the Scottish union was 
effected, Ireland would gladly have made the same 
terms. During the eighteenth century many great 
writers seemed in favour of union, but the feeling of the 
Irish changed when their nation was at last relieved 
from the restrictions on trade and their Parliament was 
declared independent by the efforts of Grattan. The 
rulers of Ireland were chiefly country landowners, who 



THE UNION 113 

had very great influence over the people of other 
classes of society. They would rapidly have lost this 
influence, if they had gone across to Westminster 
to sit in Parliament, for absentee landlords were never 
popular with the tenants. Though the new Irish 
Parliament had shown loyalty to England in giving 
men and money for wars abroad, they had a growing 
desire to encourage the prosperity of their own nation 
and could not believe that the English would ever do 
anything to stimulate Irish trade. The Protestants, 
on the whole, were far more hostile to the proposed 
union than the Catholics. The Catholics in Ireland 
had been persecuted since the conquest by William 
of Orange. A series of " penal " laws had been 
passed that gradually took from them all the privileges 
that freemen usually enjoy. It must be remembered 
that some of these laws had their origin in the Irish 
Parliament, where sat Protestant members who had 
every intention to keep the power they had gained 
by the victory of the Boyne. As no Catholic could 
ever become a member of Parliament or even vote at 
an election, the laws against Catholics had been made 
harsher year by year. 

If the eldest son of a Catholic with landed property 
declared himself a Protestant, he was allowed to seize 
his own father's land. A Catholic might not accept 
land left to him by will and he could not buy it, 
whatever price he offered. A Protestant had the right 
of taking any horse he fancied from a Catholic's 
stable, provided he made the offer of £^, which was 
equal to about ^^30 at the present day, but might not 
be a fair price for the horse. A Protestant also had 
the legal right of taking possession of a Catholic farm, 
if the farmer was making too much profit over and 
above the rent. 
8 



1 14 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

William Pitt, the English statesman who was 
especially anxious to bring about this union of 
England and Ireland, held out the hope that the 
Catholics should be freed from an injustice which 
reduced them to the condition of slaves. On this 
account, he gained support from certain of the 
Catholics, though these were not powerful enough 
to change the general opinion of Ireland. Pitt's 
intention of helping the Catholics was, of course, 
strongly opposed by the Protestant nobility and 
gentry, who would have nothing to do with a scheme 
of Union. The Irish barristers were equally against 
it because it would almost ruin them to go to sit 
in an English Parliament, where they would be far 
removed from the pursuit of their calling in Dublin. 

The rebellion of '98 won over a few Irishmen to 
the Union by causing property-owners to feel some 
insecurity and by arousing the patriotism of others 
who were afraid of a French invasion. Pitt thought 
it a very favourable time to take active steps to secure 
his object. 

The Irish Parliament met in January, 1799. Lead- 
ing members spoke against the Union and a violent 
discussion was carried on for two and twenty hours. 
When the votes were taken, the numbers were equal. 
Government stooped to base measures and bought the 
vote of one member and persuaded another to refrain 
from voting on the absurd pretence that he had re- 
signed his seat. After another discussion the Govern- 
ment was defeated, but when the scheme was brought 
forward in the English Parliament hardly a dis- 
approving voice was heard. 

Government then set to work to secure a majority 
in favour of the Union by a shameful system of 
bribery. They paid money to members willing to 



THE UNION 115 

resign their seats in favour of men who would support 
English wishes. Pensions and honours of every kind 
were offered lavishly, according to the value of a 
man's influence. Struggling barristers were promised 
high places in the legal profession, ambitious commoners 
were raised to the peerage, and men of rank offered 
still nobler titles. Bishoprics and baronetcies rewarded 
such Irish members as would change their views to 
assume new dignities. There had been three hundred 
members in the Parliament at Dublin and only one 
hundred Irish members were to take their seats at 
Westminster. Heavy compensation had to buy out 
the two hundred for whom Government had no use. 
Lord Ely received ^45,000 for retiring from political 
life, and Lord Downshire i^5 2,500. The English 
Government paid out the money readily, adding to the 
National Debt. The Press was corrupted so lavishly 
that it only published one side of the question at issue 
— the side supporting the English Government. 

All through 1799 Castlereagh and Cornwallis, 
the chief Government officials, did their work for 
Pitt. Cornwallis was an honourable man by nature 
and hated the task, though he did it very thoroughly 
indeed. He stayed at the different country houses of 
the Irish nobility, and surely guest never had to make 
such efforts to win over the support of host. In the 
intervals, Cornwallis wrote peevish letters to his 
friends complaining of the life he was obliged to 
lead for Pitt's sake. 

On the 15th of January, 1800, the Irish Parliament 
met for the last time in Dublin. During the debate a 
guard of cavalry paraded round the house in case of 
a disturbance. The crowd was kept in check by an 
army brought into the capital for this purpose. The 
Government knew well the discontent of the nation 



1 16 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

most affected by the Union. Members of Parliament 
had obtained petitions against it from twenty-six 
counties. Grattan rose from a sick-bed to utter a 
last protest. All was useless now that gold had 
bought men of hitherto unblemished character. The 
Bill was carried after a hard struggle, and the Speaker 
left the House amidst a strange hush that had fallen 
on the streets of Dublin. Members escorted him to 
his own house with bared heads, and a knot of 
onlookers went with them. But there was no riot, 
no demonstration. When the Speaker entered his 
house after bowing to the crowd, silence was still 
observed as, with reluctance, men parted from their 
national independence. 

The Bill was passed in the English House of Lords 
by a majority of nearly three to one. The king gave 
his royal assent on the ist of August, and the Act of 
Union came into force on the first day of 1801. 

The two kingdoms of England and Ireland were 
henceforward to be one. This meant that Irish 
members came to sit in the English Parliament — one 
hundred members in the House of Commons and 
thirty-two in the House of Lords. The Irish were 
to have the same laws of trade as the English, and 
the Irish Established Church was to be united to that 
of England. 

The Great Seal of the English Chancellor was 
defaced, and a new Seal made as the Seal of the 
Empire. The English King, George HI., dropped the 
title of King of France and introduced a change into 
his royal coat-of-arnis. In London, Edinburgh, and 
Dublin the national standard was now raised, depicting 
the order of S. Patrick with the orders of S. Andrew 
and S. George. The Bank of Ireland bought the old 
building of the Irish Parliament in Dublin. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

DANIEL O'CONNELL, LIBERATOR 

ONE of the Irishmen most opposed to the Act of 
Union was Daniel O'Connell, the greatest up- 
holder of liberty that the world has ever seen. 

He was born in 1775, the year when America was 
freed from dependence on the mother-country. Thus, 
in the first days of his memory, the spirit of revolt had 
begun to pass across the seas to Ireland. The 
Catholics of that country had now reached the furthest 
limits of degradation, banned in their own land as 
lower than slaves, unable to hold property like other 
men, denied the common privilege of self-defence. 
O'Connell himself was not allowed to enter Trinity 
College, Dublin, to complete his education, but was 
sent by his uncle, known as Old Hunting-Cap, to the 
Jesuit College of S. Omer. Those were such stirring 
years in France that few students could pursue their 
studies quietly with the horrors of the French Revolu- 
tion passing to its most dreadful phase of bloodshed. 
O'Connell had to leave France in haste, travelling from 
Calais to Dover with one John Sheares, who produced 
from his pocket, on the way, a handkerchief steeped 
in the blood of Louis XVI. 

O'Connell never sympathized with violent attempts 
for liberty that were regardless of the sacrifice of 
human life. As soon as the boat left the shores of 

France, he flung into the sea the tricolour cockade he 

117 



ii8 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

had been obliged to wear on his hat as a protection 
from the Republican mob. Yet the French Revolution 
helped the Irish Catholics to gain some great privileges 
at this time. The right of voting for members of 
Parliament was given to them in 1793, and through 
another law, passed soon after, O'Connell was able to 
become a barrister in 1798. 

He read hard and won many cases for his clients 
as he built up that fame as an orator, which was so 
important in after life. His first public speech was 
made at a meeting held in Dublin to protest against 
the Act of Union and to deny the statement that the 
Catholics approved of it. The dream of his life was 
to bring about the repeal of the Act, but he was 
content to wait till freedom had been granted to men 
of his religion. 

In 181 5, O'Connell fought a duel with D'Esterre, 
who represented the Guild of Merchants at the council 
of the Dublin corporation. He had to account for 
some bitter words at a public meeting when he re- 
ferred to the '' beggarly " corporation of Dublin. The 
quarrel roused public attention, and D'Esterre's fol- 
lowers evidently expected a regular battle for no less 
than thirty-six pairs of pistols were counted among 
them. D'Esterre, mortally wounded, died two days 
later, and this tragedy is said to have embittered 
O'Connell's whole life. Nevertheless, he engaged in 
many other quarrels and fought other duels. Splendid 
speaker as he was, he seldom weighed his words, and, in 
moments of excitement, was too often abusive to his 
opponents. 

In I 82 I, Wellesley became Viceroy of Ireland, and, 
as the first Irishman to fill that post for centuries, 
caused new hopes to rise in the breasts of Irish 
Catholics. He declared to their disappointment that 



DANIEL O'CONNELL, LIBERATOR 119 

he came " to -administer the laws and not to alter 
them." So insulting were the demonstrations of the 
Orange party, while he was in office, that O'Connell 
called upon him to suppress them. 

Robert Peel, once- Chief Secretary for Ireland and 
known as Orange-Peel on account of his sympathies 
with the Orange-party, had organized the Royal Irish 
Constabulary, but this body of men could not restore 
order under Wellesley. It was too generally believed 
that the Viceroy looked with no favour upon the 
Catholics. 

In 1823, when the hopes of the party " hung as 
wet osiers," O'Connell founded the Catholic Associa- 
tion. At first, few people attended their meetings, 
but, through the wonderful influence of the leader, 
it became a powerful body that won the rights of 
Catholics from the Government. O'Connell would 
not allow any of the members to commit acts of 
violence, for he believed in peaceful agitation. He 
made the ignorant masses see that they must work 
for what they wanted, and must never damage their 
cause by going against the law. O'Connell and 
Richard Lalor Sheil, who was almost as great a 
speaker, visited England in 1825 to appeal against a 
Bill passed to suppress the Catholic Association. 
They attracted much notice on their journey, 
O'Connell sitting on the box of the landau, in which 
they drove, wrapped in a cloak like an ancient Irish 
mantle. At Wolverhampton they were hungry enough 
to be tempted by " an unhallowed round of beef," but 
might not touch it since the season was Lent. They 
contented themselves with the poor substitute of dry 
toast and creamless tea. 

The Bill for Catholic Emancipation passed a second 
reading in 1825, but was thrown out after the Duke 



I20 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

of York's speech in the House of Lords. O'Connell 
complained bitterly that a government which had given 
freedom to the Portuguese and the Catholics in far-off 
South America was content to leave seven millions of 
Irish Catholics in bondage. Wild excitement had been 
evoked by the visit of George IV. to Ireland in 1821, 
but he disliked O'Connell, who had then placed on 
his head a laurel crown, and was found in tears when 
the Duke of Wellington came to tell him that the 
Catholics must be freed ! 

O'Connell struggled bravely for five years, attracting 
millions to hear him and drawing the O'Connell 
Tribute like a king. The money was freely given by 
the Irish Catholics for the expenses of their cause, and 
O'Connell had to consider a serious diminution in the 
enormous income he had earned at the bar when he 
was free to devote all his time to legal practice. Yet 
there were enemies who found fault with him for using 
this annual Rent, as though he had wrung it from a 
reluctant nation. He taught the people to use the 
right of voting they had obtained, and by his en- 
deavours at length vanquished the conqueror of 
Waterloo. He was elected for Clare in 1828, and the 
Bill for Emancipation received the royal assent in 
1829. John Keogh is said to have prophesied that 
the Bill would be carried when an Irish Catholic was 
sent to Parliament. Attempts were made to prevent 
O'Connell from taking his seat, and the oath had to 
be altered that had once made it impossible for a 
Catholic to comply with the usual formalities. 

After 1829, O'Connell enjoyed a wide fame in 
Europe as the victorious revolutionist, who had changed 
the destiny of Ireland and yet had shed no blood. 
His voice was always raised in the demand for freedom ; 
he advocated the liberation of American slaves and 



DANIEL O'CONNELL, LIBERATOR 121 

certain privileges, then denied to both Jews and 
Dissenters ; and he fought for free commerce in the 
struggle of the Corn Laws. 

The Repeal of the Union became O'Connell's chief 
aim in life. In 1840, he founded the Repeal Associa- 
tion, and in 1843, began to hold monster meetings, to 
which men flocked in thousands, eager to hear his 
magnificent orations. Too much cannot be said of 
O'Connell's power as a speaker. His brain and tongue 
were the best weapons that a man could have. He 
had a stately presence and a voice of surpassing melody, 
which added to the effects of his clear directness of 
speech. Few could hear him unmoved, even if they 
had come with violent prejudice against his views. 
In Edinburgh he roused a meeting of hostile Scots to 
a frenzy of enthusiasm. 

In answer to O'Connell's summons, 750,000 men 
assembled at Tara, where ancient kings of Ireland 
once sat in council. There he rashly pledged himself 
that within twelve months an Irish Parliament would 
be established on College Green. The next meeting 
to be held at Clontarf was forbidden by Government, 
and in 1844, O'Connell was put upon his trial on a 
charge of conspiracy. The verdict of guilty was 
returned, and for several months the great Liberator lay 
in prison. 

After a struggle against the unfair trial, O'Connell 
was released to the joy of the Irish nation. A change 
had taken place in him, for he left prison a strangely 
broken man. He knew that his credit had been 
damaged by imprisonment, for his followers saw that 
his reforms could be stopped by the power of the lav\^ 
With a last appeal for Ireland, suffering from disease 
and famine, O'Connell set out on a pilgrimage to 
Rome. He died at Genoa in 1847, and, in accordance 



122 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

with his wishes, his heart was carried to the Eternal 
City, while his body was brought back to Ireland and 
buried at Glasnevin. 

By Ireland O'Connell must ever be honoured as 
the Liberator of his countrymen, while other nations 
owe to him the upholding of all liberty. Europe had 
watched his actions with the tensest interest, the 
oppressed hoping for a champion, the tyrannical fearing 
for their own downfall. His speeches were translated 
into all languages, and read by slaves and bondmen 
with a trembling eagerness. 



CHAPTER XXV 

THE GREAT HUNGER 

THE peasants of Ireland had come to live almost 
entirely on the potato, which had been first 
introduced into the country by Walter Raleigh. In 
better times, they could afford to keep the farm produce, 
but this had to be shipped off to England to pay the 
master, when times were bad. 

People who lived on the cheaper variety of the 
potato were not very thriving" specimens of humanity. 
The regular harvest crowd of Irishmen crossing to 
England in the month of August were pitiably under- 
sized, and in their odd, ragged garments, often fastened 
together by wisps of straw, they gave the prosperous 
English farmers an impression that all the Irish nation 
were inferior to themselves. Most of these harvesters 
came from the western counties, where the land was 
dry and barren. Potatoes did not often last out till 
the end of the }'ear, and with wages as low as 4.6. a 
day, anything else was too dear for the scanty meals 
of a labourer. Famine was known to the Irish peasant 
only too well before the first rumours spread in 1845, 
that a blight had fallen on the potato-crop of Ireland. 

The same blight fell on other countries — -on Holland 
and Hungary, on Belgium and Canada — but the 
danger was most serious to Ireland because the 
poorest class there depended entirely on the root, 
which had been destroyed. After a famine there was 

123 



124 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

al\va\'s the risk of fever, which would spread to all 
classes, and therefore caused more terror to the country 
as a whole. The Government were slow^ to notice the 
first omens of disaster, and did not adopt the sugges- 
tions which O'Connell made for the benefit of his 
nation. He thought brewing and distilling should be 
stopped in order that all the grain could be used as 
food, that no tax should be imposed on corn brought 
into Irish ports, and that every grain of corn in Ireland 
should be kept there. He wanted land-owners to pay 
a tax so that there might be a fund for the peasantry 
when dire want came upon them. 

Government did not approve of O'Connell's measures, 
and it is possible that they would have been fruitless. 
Yet the harvest of 1846 was particularly abundant, 
and it seemed foolish to send away the farm produce 
to England while there was hunger to be satisfied at 
home. 

Famine came to the peasant, like some evil spirit, 
tempting him to crimes that he would have loathed in 
seasons of prosperity. Men saw their children crying 
for food and went out insanely to burn and plunder, 
too often to take life. In country neighbourhoods the 
wealth)' lived in a state of panic, and the humble^ 
labourer can hardly be said to have lived at all. They i 
were used to such extreme poverty that bread wasj 
accounted a luxury to be bought only on such festivals | 
as Christmas and Easter. Many cottars with large | 
families were able to have a new coat only once in 
five years, and their wives wore cloaks and gowns even 
longer since their work was less exposed to the weather. 
A cabin bedstead could be purchased for five shillings, 
but there were few homes where some members did 
not lie all night on the ground. The cabins had often 
damp floors and leaky roofs that made such economies 



THE GREAT HUNGER 125 

very dangerous to health. Wages were uncertain and 
farmers could hire men in plenty to work for them 
without any other wages than their usual meals of 
potatoes every day. 

The summer of 1846 was very warm and wet. In 
one night a general blight fell on the potato-crop all 
through the land. As cattle, corn, and butter were 
still sent away to raise money to pay the rent, many 
deaths from starvation followed both in the North and 
the South. 

Switzerland and Germany, in a like case, opened 
public granaries for the people, and there was certainly 
enough food in Ireland to feed the whole country, 
but English officials thought to meet the distress by 
finding work for labourers. They decided to extend 
the highways of Ireland. Millions of money were 
squandered on making new roads, where they were no 
manner of use, and good roads were torn up in order 
to be made again. New lines were planned where 
traffic never passed, and strange highways, known as 
Famine Roads, can still be seen in Ireland, lying in 
the middle of bogs or on the edge of precipices. The 
men employed soon grew too feeble for their tasks. 
Disease came after want and carried off 200,000 
people. 

Other efforts were made to help the country, but 
all was too late. Gold was given lavishly by other 
countries, and stores of Indian corn were sent to 
Ireland to be served out to the people, while their own 
corn was still exported. The state of the nation 
became more pitiable from day to day. In 1847 a 
young Englishman, travelling through Ireland, describes 
the town of VVestport : 

" The town of Westport was in itself a strange and 
fearful sight, like what we read of In beleaguered cities, 



126 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

streets crowded with gaunt wanderers, sauntering to 
and fro, with hopeless air and hunger-stricken look — 
a mob of starved, almost naked women around the 
poor-house, clamouring for soup tickets, and our inn, 
the headquarters of the road-engineers and pay-clerks, 
beset by a crowd of beggars for work." 

The same traveller describes another district : " As 
we went along our wonder was not that the people 
died, but that they lived, and I have no doubt what- 
ever that in any other country the mortality would 
have been far greater : that many lives have been 
prolonged, perhaps, by the long apprenticeship to want, 
in which the Irish peasant has been trained, and by 
that lovely, touching charity, which prompts him to 
share his scanty meal with his starving neighbour." 

Fishermen had to pledge their nets and tackle to 
buy food, while workmen often tramped so far to get 
employment that they fell over their tools in sheer 
exhaustion as they worked. 

After the famine, other terrors came upon the Irish 
peasant. Thousands were driven from their cabins 
because they could not pay their rents. In despair, 
great numbers left the country, hoping for better 
fortune across the sea, but disease and death still 
pursued them as they embarked on crowded and un- 
seaworthy vessels, and many were drowned before they 
reached American shores. 

The years of hunger brought to an end that long 
struggle of the Irish against their national poverty. 
The weak seemed to decline into idle acceptance of 
inherited misfortune and scarcely made any attempt to 
do their best with what they had. The promising 
refused to be satisfied with their own barren land. 
They set off to the United States, where they could 
nearly always earn higher wages, and a new homeland 



THE GREAT HUNGER 127 

was thus created in a foreign country. By and by the 
vast continent of America knew another Ireland formed 
by the emigrants who succeeded in town-hfe far more 
often than on farms. The decreasing population of 
the old Ireland saw their prosperity with wonder, but 
did not try to emulate it. They continued to follow 
the ancient callings of the pastures. Long stretches 
of land separated one cabin from another, so that the 
tenant-farmer lived in isolation that had no good effect 
on his labour. 

Between 1847 and 185 i, the census showed that 
the population of Ireland had been reduced by no less 
than two million souls. In the following years, the 
tide of emigration flowed with steady and all too fatal 
impulse towards the United States. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THOMAS MOORE, " THE POET OF THE PEOPLE 
OF H^ELAND " 

BExA^UTIFUL words set to beautiful music 
appealed to many who had not been roused 
to sympathy with Ireland by the greatest orator of 
modern times. 

Thomas Moore, born about four years later than 
O'Connell, not only stirred millions of apathetic Irish 
to remember their own nation and its needs, but 
also furthered their cause among the aristocracy of 
England, whom political agitation had left cold. 

Set to the harp, that once famed instrument of 
Erin, his words recalled the pride of his race, the 
sadness and the genius that were part of it. They 
broke through a long silence to express emotions that 
evoked generous sympathy by the surpassing sweet- 
ness with which they voiced their appeal. The bards 
of Ireland, formerly so powerful in their influence on 
politics, had become mere strolling entertainers, glad 
to accept the shelter of the humblest inn or cabin. 
They had fallen with the great houses, that had 
honoured them as guests, and their music was no 
longer heard at national assemblies. It was held 
suitable now for weddings, wakes and patterns or 
" patrons," which celebrated the festivals of saints. 
Even the national airs were dying out when Thomas 
Moore was born. 



THOMAS MOOllK 



129 



He seemed unlikely to influence the destiny of a 
nation in the humble surroundings, where he first saw 
the light. His parents were struggling tradespeople 
of Dublin, by no means able to provide for their 
children's education without great efforts. The 
mother, however, was ambitious, and sent Thomas to 
the best school she could afford, for he was a brilliant 
boy and far outshone Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the 
great dramatist, who was his schoolfellow for some 
years. When he was thirteen, the affairs of Ireland 
had reached a dangerous pitch of excitement. 
Several of the United Irishmen were his friends, and 
he remembered sitting at a public dinner on the knee 
of Napper Tandy, one of the heroes of '98. The 
toast " May the breezes of France blow our Irish Oak 
into verdure," especially delighted his youthful 
imagination. 

Moore's family were Catholics, and blessed the law 
which removed the prohibition against Catholic 
barristers. They sent Thomas to the University of 
Dublin, where he could not, however, compete for a 
scholarship on account of his religion. There was 
some discussion whether it would not be prudent to 
enter the young student as a Protestant, but the 
mother refused to consent. 

Moore spent the early time of his career at college 
in the study of classics and verse-writing. The 
days passed pleasantly for him, till the troubled spirit 
of the age found its way to the university. Moore 
belonged to a debating society, of which the ill-fated 
Robert Emmet was chief orator. When the con- 
spiracy of the United Irishmen was discovered, many 
of Moore's friends were found to be concerned in it, 
and he was called upon to give evidence against them. 
Though only seventeen or eighteen, he acted with 
9 



130 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

sturdy independence, refusing to say anything that was 
likely to injure his companions, even when threatened 
with suspension from the university. He came 
through this ordeal favourably at last, and was able to 
enter himself as a student at the Middle Temple, 
London, as soon as his mother had saved enough for 
his expenses. 

It was usual in those days for a poet to find a 
patron, who would help him either by money or in- 
fluence, and Moore was introduced to Lord Moira for 
this purpose. He obtained permission to dedicate a 
translationof "Anacreon"to the Prince of Wales and was 
presented to him personally. This honour launched him 
on his career as a man of letters. A revival of ancient 
Irish airs, which were published in 1796, awakened 
Moore's genius for music, really greater than his talent 
for verse. He had begun by practising on an old 
harpsichord, which his father had taken in payment 
for some debt. He improved his knowledge, gathered 
together fragments of old melodies and wrote the 
songs for them, which came to be associated with the 
music as if written in days of long ago. He owed 
his success in society less to his promise as a poet 
than to his remarkable gifts as a musician. The 
doors of great English houses opened to him for the 
sake of his songs. He began to publish his " Irish 
Melodies" in 1807 ^^id his " National Airs " in 181 5. 

Moore's popularity became unbounded, but in the 
very heyday of success he was never forgetful of his 
humble family. He worked for them unceasingly, 
and at the same time was unflagging in his devotion 
to Ireland. For the cause of Catholic emancipation 
he used all his gifts of wit, satire and eloquence with- 
out fear. His own sympathy was so deep that he 
won the sympathy of others, and it coloured hU 



THOMAS MOORP: 131 

writings with a passion that reawakened the long past 
power of the bards of a former age. 

Moore's '* Poems of the East " had equal music and 
pathos. " Lalla Rookh " indeed, won a success that 
rivalled the fame of Scott and of Byron. Three 
thousand guineas were offered for the poem before it 
was written — a sum that must have been very accept- 
able to a poet in needy circumstances ! Moore 
accepted neither bounty nor bribery and all his life 
had to struggle for the means of subsistence. He 
took the burden of his family when his mother died, 
refusing all offers of help from his friends. The people 
of Limerick offered to provide him with the necessary 
estate if he would enter Parliament, as O'Connell en- 
treated, but he was afraid of binding himself to a 
certain course of action, and refused the seat. Thomas 
Moore in public life would hold no man master. 

Sentiments of patriotism and martyrdom inspire the 
four long books of " Lalla Rookh," as they inspire the 
" National Melodies." Ireland was in the poet's heart 
when he wrote of the East, and the tragedy of a fierce 
and hopeless struggle. Moore gained some renown 
for a " Life of Byron " but he lives by the glory of his 
" National Melodies." Burns in Scotland and Beranger 
in Provence are the only modern song-writers to be 
compared with him. Shiel and O'Connell, the greatest 
of his countrymen were accustomed to quote the lyrics 
of Moore, for they well knew their effect upon an 
audience. Irishmen, who listened to Moore's verses, 
were not only encouraged in new patriotism — they 
also turned to wild adoration of the poet himself. 
Sir Walter Scott was delighted by a reception given 
to Moore in a theatre at Edinburgh. " The house," 
he says, " received him with rapture. I could have 
hugged them for it." 



132 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

As a poet or musician little fault can be found with 
Moore. As a man he was, perhaps, tarnished somewhat 
by vanity and worldliness. Yet he worked faithfully 
to the end of his life, bearing much sorrow and loss. 
He married in early youth a wife almost as penniless 
as himself The two had several children, but lost 
them one by one. The gaiety of the poet vanished 
before this affliction. 

Moore died in England in 1852, and it is said that 
his love of music never left him but with life itself, for 
he sang a favourite air on the day before he died. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE FENIAN BROTHERHOOD 

THE years of famine had seen the growth of 
a party in Ireland, which went much further than 
O'Connell in demanding freedom. While he would 
not defend the rights of the nation by physical force, 
they held that sheer violence was sometimes necessary. 
They held the view that actions were more potent than 
words, though they numbered many eloquent orators 
and used the " Nation " newspaper as the means of 
spreading their opinions through the country. 

The Young Ireland party was headed by William 
Smith O'Brien, member for County Limerick and a 
descendant of Brian Boromna. It led to the formation 
of a still more violent party, headed by Mitchell, a 
man who held the same ideas as Wolfe Tone and 
Emmet, and aimed at the independence of Ireland. 
Steps were taken by both parties to prepare for 
revolution, but, before the time was ripe, the plot was 
discovered by government, and all the leaders punished. 

Discontent had not died down with the emigration 
of Irishmen to America. Landlords still continued 
to evict tenants from their huts, often removing the 
roof in order to prevent return. Food was scarce and 
rents hard to pay. The Irish peasant began to 
believe that only the landlord had any rights, or was 
benefited by laws. He was tempted to take vengeance 
on his oppressor, and societies known as Ribbon Lodges 

•33 



134 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

encouraged attacks on proprietors of land, which 
ended in murder and other crimes. Nobody has 
ever discovered the real aims of these Ribbon 
societies, but they were thought to exist as a protection 
for the serf from the landlord. In 1850, a less 
formidable society was founded for the same purposes. 
This was known as the Tenant League. 

In 1852, certain members were elected to Parliament, 
that they might look after the interests of tenants. 
Among them were honourable and patriotic men, such 
as Charles Gavan Duffy, who suffered for his cause. 
Unfortunately, there were four men of the most 
desperate character in the league — James and John 
Sadleir, William Keogh and O'Flaherty. From their 
loud demands and bold speeches, these were known as 
the Brass Band. 

The Brass Band started a newspaper for their party, 
pretending to consult the good of the Irish peasant 
in everything. In reality they were swindlers, and 
suffered exposure when they had received high offices 
under government. Half Ireland had been ruined 
by John Sadleir's fraudulent bank. He had also 
converted public money to private uses, taking 
advantage of his position as Lord of the Treasury. 
He is said to have taken his life when the frauds were 
discovered, but some people whispered strange stories 
of his adventures in other countries, after a body 
was found on Hampstead Heath and secretly buried 
as John Sadleir. His brother James suffered the 
disgrace of formal expulsion from the House of 
Commons. Keogh managed to evade justice and was 
even made a judge, while O'Flaherty fled to New 
York and became quite famous, under another name, 
as a witty society man. 

The rising of the Young Ireland party had failed. 



THE FENIAN IMIOTIIEHTIOOD 135 

the Brass Band was silenced, yet the Irish were still 
determined to achieve reform. From the ashes of the 
Young Ireland Society another rose, which was 
appropriately named the Phoenix. It met under a 
leader known as the Hawk, in reality one James 
Stephens, a man of great ability. In December 
1858, the government issued a proclamation, which 
showed what serious alarm had been caused by the 
Phoenix Society. Raids were made on suspected 
houses and several prisoners were taken, but very 
little was discovered of the true nature of the society's 
proceedings. The Phoenix conspiracy was not im- 
portant in itself. It is chiefly of note because it gave 
the first warning of the Fenian Brotherhood. 

Stephens, or the Hawk, went on with his efforts for 
Ireland, and in America a similar leader, O'Mahony, 
was also plotting to rise against the English govern- 
ment. In olden times there had been a band of 
heroes — warriors and poets — the legendary Feni or 
companions of Fion, son of Coul. The exploits of 
these heroes had never died to Ireland. They were 
the pride and glory of the nation's history, and their 
very name roused a thrill of patriotism. Some of the 
first Fenians were poets — their name soon became as 
widely known as that of the original P'eni. 

The Fenian movement was not of rapid development. 
It was helped by the death of a patriot M'Manus, 
banished for political offences, and much beloved by 
his countrymen. The remains of M'Manus were 
brouGcht from America to Ireland and carried in state 
through the streets of Dublin, The procession 
stopped solemnly at various places on the route 
which had some association with national leaders, 
— Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Robert Emmet, Wolfe 
Tone — and a vengeful spirit was excited in the 



136 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

people by the memory of the exiled M'Manus, thus 
brought before them. Americans had come over to 
act as an escort to the funeral procession. They 
were able to join the Irish Fenians in new schemes 
that were then made. 

Thousands of Irishmen fought in the American 
civil war, in the ranks of North and South. Once 
two regiments were drawn up in battle-line with 
Irishmen on either side, who recognized each other 
and refused to fight, passing onwards to the cry of 
" God save Ireland." Irish soldiers in America were 
trained for warfare and Irish-American officers went 
over to Ireland to head the Fenian rebellion. They 
found nothing ready, and the rising was a failure 
because government suspicions were aroused too soon. 

In 1865, the Fenians' best opportunity was lost. 
A spy betrayed the plans of the Fenian leaders, and 
this led to a raid on the offices of the " Irish People," 
a newspaper of the brotherhood. All the chief men 
were captured except Stephens, who lived in disguise 
near Dublin for some time. This arrest caused wild 
excitement through Ireland. Still greater excitement 
was caused when he escaped from Richmond prison 
within a fortnight of his capture. The way of his 
escape was mysterious, for he was strongly guarded, 
but in all likelihood two of his warders sympathized 
with the Fenian rising, though they were in the 
service of government. Stephens was never recaptured, 
in spite of the hue and cry. He made his way to 
France, and it was considered a triumph for his party 
that he was still free. 

The scare was still at its height in England when 
the Fenians invaded Canada a year later. This was 
only successful for a few hours. The Fenians captured 
a government fort and ran up their own green banner. 



THE FENTAN RROTTTERTTOOD 137 

but the United States then interfered and arrested 
many prominent Fenians. 

An attempt was made to capture Chester Castle, 
to take possession of the steamboats plying from 
Holyhead, and to cut off telegraphic communication 
before invading Ireland. An informer betrayed 
this plan and the rising was a failure. 

In 1867, the great rebellion was to take place in 
Ireland, but heavy falls of snow " practically buried 
the rising in its white shrouds." The last struggle of 
the Fenians had at least the good effect of drawing 
public attention to the grievances of Ireland. 

Two members of the Brotherhood were being- 
conveyed from the police court at Manchester to the 
prison ; other members had resolved to set them free, 
and, therefore, came to surround the van in a body. 
The police-sergeant, who refused to unlock the door 
of the van, was injured fatally when the Fenian leader 
blew off the lock. The prisoners escaped, but the 
arrests of five men followed, three of whom were 
hanged for the accidental death of the police-officer. 
Many efforts were made to win mercy for the 
condemned. John Bright and John Stuart Mill 
pleaded for them eloquently, the poet Swinburne 
made an appeal in verse. The English had suffered 
such alarm that they were not inclined to be lenient, 
and there was a general outcry for the death of the 
Fenian ringleaders. 

The three men suffered the utmost penalty, yet the 
general attention roused was of future advantage to 
Ireland. Statesmen, such as William Ewart Glad- 
stone, began to examine the conditions of their 
country more narrowly. They saw that wrongs must 
be serious, to lead men to suffer death boldly, rather 
than submit to oppressive conditions of life, 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE CASE OF CAPTAIN BOYCOTT 

WHEN the flourishing trade of Ireland was 
destroyed, and skilled aftificers became un- 
known in a country where they had once taken rank 
with the learned in mind and the noble of blood, the 
Irishman turned to the land for occupation, and from 
the land had, of necessity, to gain his scanty livelihood. 
How precarious were his means of subsistence can be 
read in the awful story of the Famine. Many a man 
turned his back on Ireland when his opportunity 
arrived, but the emigrant always said farewell to his 
country with a heavy heart, and many would face 
any privation rather than leave the homes where they 
had been reared. 

The Irish peasant loved his land, though it was 
perhaps nothing but a narrow strip of barren pasture, 
where his own cow grazed, or his herd of goats. He 
always looked upon himself as ihe real possessor, if 
he seldom knew the pride of actual ownership. He 
paid his rent grudgingly from the poor farm produce 
he could raise, and it always seemed a large sum to 
him, be it never so paltry in the eyes of landlord and 
agent. The small farmer had reason to dread rent- 
days since there was the danger that he might have 
to pay more next year than the amount he had 
scraped together with hard toil. The thriftier peasant 

was discouraged from making improvements in his 

138 



THE CASE OF CAPTAIN BOYCOTT 139 

cabin when he found that he was liable to have his 
rent raised, if he made too fine a home. It seemed, 
under these circumstances, better to have a leaky roof 
than to have no roof at all. The terror of eviction 
was ever present to the man who held his land from 
a careless landlord. He might pay his rent punctually, 
and then be told on quarter-day that the master 
w^anted his plot of ground for some special purpose 
and intended to pull down the cottages upon it. 
Many of the landlords responsible for wholesale 
evictions were absentees and knew nothing of the 
actual cruelty that their orders entailed. During the 
famine, Irish property had changed hands owing to 
the general distress, which fell heavily on landholders 
as well as tenants. Some owners had died from 
the disease that raged through Ireland, others from 
poverty caused sometimes by too lavish generosity, 
and others again died from sheer pain at the sights that 
met their eyes. The new landlords were not knit to 
their tenants by old ties of family affection, and with- 
out warm sympathy, landlord and peasant in Ireland 
must stand very far apart. 

Evictions were always resented. When they were 
the results of hunger and misery, men of peaceful 
nature were driven to exercise the only power they 
had, which lay entirely in brute force. Agents coming 
to serve writs of eviction found what a dangerous 
errand it could be. They were lucky, indeed, if they 
escaped with nothing worse than a ducking in the 
nearest pond. The lawless peasantry were often 
driven to fierce acts of vengeance, taking the lives of 
master or agent in the blind wrath that came upon 
them after periods of starvation. The Irish leaders 
in the Parliament at Westminster knew that this 
dangerous spirit was abroad in agricultural districts. 



I40 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

whence came reports of crimes that were generally 
put down to the long-standing grievance of the 
land. They knew that a different system prevailed 
in England, where there was more justice for the 
tenant, and they urged as strongly as possible, that 
the land-tenure in Ireland should be made a subject 
for reform. 

The English Ministry waived the claim of the Irish 
members, proceeding to deal with other questions in 
Parliament. Men of note among the Irish party, 
exasperated by this indifference, then gave encourage- 
ment to a new plan of the Land League members, 
who refused to pay any rent till the landlords treated 
them fairly. All attempts at eviction were resisted, 
and the Land League grew so powerful that it 
threatened to rule the country. The members added 
considerably to their strength by a new way of 
punishing men who defied their principles. The 
Lieaguers regarded, with even greater enmity than 
the landlords, the class of farmers who took possession 
of farms from which their own men had been evicted 
because they refused to pay the rent. The first man 
to be punished by the special method of the League 
was Captain Boycott, an Englishman, and agent to 
Lord Earne. 

Captain Boycott, in his capacity as agent, served 
writs on some tenants near Lough Mask, where he 
had a farm of his own. In return, all the people of 
the neighbourhood agreed to shun him as though he 
had some dreadful taint upon him. His servants left 
the house, his labourers flung down their implements 
and left the fields, though it was harvest-time. 
Captain Boycott was a man of energy and courage, 
and he resolved to brave the League. He worked 
in his own fields with his wife working at his side, but 



THE CASE OF CAPTAIN BOYCOTT 141 

their task would have been impossible, had they not 
received help from the North. The Ulster tenants 
did not suffer from the same grievances as other Irish 
farmers, and were inclined to oppose the League. 
They sent men, therefore, to Captain Boycott's 
farm to gather in the harvest, but there was surely 
never a less joyous scene than the fields, where reapers 
worked under the guard of armed men, who followed 
them closely to see that they were not made the 
victims of a terrible vengeance. Captain Boycott 
himself had been protected by a Government force 
when he set about his work in solitude — it was 
equally necessary to protect any men daring to band 
themselves against the formidable Land League. 

Similar scenes were re-enacted year by year in 
different parts of Ireland. The League could not be 
compelled to give up their " boycotting " by law, 
because its power lay not in what they did to men but 
in what they left undone. If a man was marked by 
the League for punishment, all the members of his 
household fall under the same isolation. His children 
were placed apart from other children at school and 
made to feel like outcasts. Servants ran grave risks 
when they took service with " boycotted " masters, for 
it was a law of the League that nobody should do a 
stroke of work for a farmer under the ban. To this 
day, indeed, such servants may be seen at chapel 
under the escort of armed policemen ! 

It was hard to sustain life sometimes on a " boy- 
cotted " farm. The master might be wealthy, but his 
gold was useless since it was not accepted for food. 
A shopkeeper would not sell his wares to a boycotted 
neighbour and all the necessaries of life had to be 
bought from a distance. The same difficulty attended 
the sale of farm produce, which might rot before a 



142 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

Land Leaguer would permit its purchase. Tlie farmer 
usually tried to dispose of his eggs and butter in 
England, but in this case he suffered loss from the 
expense of carriage. 

Laws of such extreme severity that they were known 
as Acts of Coercion were passed against the Land 
League but its policy never wavered. If a member 
committed any deed of violence, he could be punished 
by law, but he could not be sent to prison for simply 
refusing to hold intercourse with another man. Boy- 
cotting, however, was a form of revenge that did no 
better service to those who practised it than to 
draw the attention of the curious to Ireland. Evictions 
continued to take place frequently and blood was 
spilt whenever the police came into sharp conflict with 
the people. 

The Land League struck fear into the hearts of 
Irish land-owners ; it alarmed the Government, which 
had too long deferred the reforms it demanded. 
Captain Boycott and other farmers suffered from the 
League, and many members of that body suffered from 
sentences that often fell unjustly. The Prime Minister, 
who was later to strive for Home Rule in Ireland, 
was hardly more successful than his fellows in his 
attempt to grapple with the problem of the land. 



CHAriEll XXIX 

HOME RULE FOR IRELAND 

THE greatest movement of Irish history came from 
a very humble attempt to do something to better 
the state of affairs in Ireland. The Fenian Brother- 
hood had been crushed, its members scattered. A 
quiet interval was expected by the English Govern- 
ment, so lately visited by panic. In 1870, a meeting 
was held in Dublin attended by Irishmen of almost all 
classes, and, at that meeting, the claim for Home Rule 
was first uttered. 

" Repeal " was the old cry of O'Connell, and his 
followers. The men, now considering the interests of 
Ireland, were unwilling to adopt this same cry, because 
they knew it would alarm the Government. Home 
Rule sounded so reasonable and innocent that it was 
used instead and soon became extremely well known 
in politics. 

Isaac Butt, a Dublin barrister, made a brilliant 
speech at this meeting of 1870, urging all Irishmen to 
unite for the sake of winning self-government, for 
Ireland. He thought it was the only way to prevent 
perpetual rebellion, and could bring no harm to 
England. The proposals he made were certainly 
moderate. He did not want Ireland to break off all 
connection with England, but he thought that affairs 
strictly Irish should be left to Irish statesmen, who 
really understood them. There was still to be a 

143 



T44 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

loyal alliance between the two countries, and they were 
still to be regarded as one Empire. The English 
Parliament was to decide Imperial questions and to 
leave Ireland the control of her own domestic affairs. 
Ireland was to be governed, in fact, very much as if 
she were one of the United States of America, free to 
settle local business, but always under the control of a 
strong central government. 

The resolution, passed unanimously at this meeting, 
came much before the public afterwards. Such a 
Government was carried on peacefully in Australia on 
a large scale and in the Isle of Man in miniature. 
Nobody had ever thought it was dangerous to let 
either of these nations manage their own concerns, but 
nearly everybody had some objection to the scheme of 
Home Rule for Ireland. 

Irish approval was shown by the return of Home 
Rule members in the General Election of i 874. Some 
sixty members, known as Home Rulers, took their 
seats in the new Parliament. They formed a party 
who intended to do all they could for their own nation. 
P'or the most part they were quiet and orderly till 
they were joined in 1875 by a member who did not 
object to violent methods as much as did the leader, 
Mr Isaac Butt. 

Charles Stewart Parnell first entered politics as M.P. 
for Meath. He was described as " a nice gentlemanly 
fellow who would be an ornament but no use," and 
men who heard his first attempts at public speaking 
thought he would never be of much account in Parlia- 
ment, By degrees, he began to make a change in 
the usual way of treating Irish questions. In 1877, 
he objected to the custom of bringing in important 
business late at night, or rather early in the morning, 
when members were too weary to give their minds to 



HOME RULE FOR IRELAND 145 

discussion. He had a steady way of sticking to his 
point, which was hard to baffle. The poh"te habit of 
howling down unpopular members of the House was 
tried most unsuccessfully with Mr Parnell. His party 
took up the policy of " obstruction." They hindered 
business in every possible way till attention was paid 
to their demands. On one occasion they kept the 
House sitting for no less than twenty-six hours, 
because they were determined to oppose a Bill on 
the South African question. In this case, the Bill was 
passed in spite of opposition, but more success crowned 
their efforts to improve a very important Bill on Prisons. 

Mr Butt did not like the obstruction policy, which 
led to scenes of wild disorder. He died in 1879, ^^^ 
his place was supposed to be taken by a member 
known as " Sensible Shaw," but, in reality, Mr Parnell 
ruled the Irish party ever after. A wealthy Ulsterman, 
Mr Joseph Biggar, went even further than Mr Parnell 
in the same policy. He was neither learned nor 
eloquent, had scant respect for English constitutions, 
and was indeed " without manners and without 
fear," yet he managed to get what he wanted by 
exasperating his opponents till they gave way. Both 
Mr Parnell and Mr Biggar thought the position of 
Irish members humiliating to the last degree, because 
they had to beg for favours that should have been 
granted as rights. 

In I 880, there was another General Election. Lord 
Beaconsfield had resolved to appeal to the country to 
discover if they approved of his policy, which was 
anti-Irish. He declared the Home Rule movement to 
be " scarcely less dangerous than pestilence or famine," 
and hinted that the Liberals, who approved of it, were 
trying " to destroy the Imperial character of England." 
The Irish naturally tried to throw the Tory party out 



10 



T46 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

of office and managed to secure the return of Liberals. 
Mr Parnell was offered three constituencies, but took 
his seat as M.P. for Cork. A split now followed 
between the parties of Mr Shaw and Mr Parnell. 
The latter refused to sit on the ministerial benches, 
and took their places among the opposition of the 
new Parliament. This meant that they would not 
support the Liberals, unless they thought it would be 
to the advantage of Ireland. Henceforward, they 
were fighting for their own land. In this party were 
many men destined to become well-known — Mr T. P. 
O'Connor, Mr Tim Healy, and Mr Justin McCarthy. 

Between 1880-5 there was a breach between the 
Liberals and the Nationalists. The latter thought 
that more attention should be paid to the Land 
Question of Ireland, for evictions were much on the 
increase. There were other points of disagreement 
also. 

In 1886, the Liberals took office again under Mr 
Gladstone. They began by expressing strong sym- 
pathy with Ireland, whose claims had been treated so 
cavalierly by the late Conservative Government. It 
became known that a Bill for Home Rule was in 
preparation. On April 26th, the House met for the 
first reading of the Bill. 

It was a time of vital importance to the whole 
Irish nation, Mr Gladstone was the foremost states- 
man of his age, and, by recognising the right of the 
Irish to rule Ireland, he drew more serious attention 
to their cause than it had ever before received. No 
member of the House, who was present on the 
occasion of the first reading of the Home Rule Bill, 
is ever likely to forget the day. People came as 
early as six o'clock in the morning to secure places. 
At the time the speech was to begin, there was not 



HOME RULE FOR IRELAND 147 

room for a single other person in the House. For 
the first time on record, chairs had to be brought into 
the House to seat members. Ambassadors and other 
dignitaries filled the lobbies. 

Nobody had been suffered to learn the secrets of 
the Bill in preparation. When the Prime Minister 
entered to explain its clauses, it seemed as though 
the whole audience rose to greet that frail old man 
of seventy-six. Mr Gladstone's speech was one of 
the greatest speeches of the century — it occupied three 
hours and twenty-five minutes. There was not a 
trace of passion in the speaker's manner, though he 
was skilled in all the arts that move an audience. 
Clear steady argument set before the House the 
elaborate scheme of the Home Rule Bill. 

The first reading passed without a division, but an 
amendment was moved to the second reading. The 
debate on the two stages occupied sixteen nights, 
while London was " hot with political passion." 

On June 8th, 1886, Mr Parnell spoke eloquently 
for Home Rule, and then Mr Gladstone made the 
last of his five speeches. He appealed to English 
statesmen to make amends to Ireland for the grievous 
injury of centuries, to act at once in such a way that the 
past might be forgotten. He pointed out that the Irish 
tradition was the only one that could reflect no glory on 
his nation. " What we want to do is to stand by the 
traditions of which we are the heirs in all matters, 
except our relations with Ireland, to make our relations 
with Ireland to conform to the other traditions of our 
country. So we treat our traditions, so we hail the 
demand of Ireland for what I call the blessed oblivion 
of the past. She asks also a boon for the future ; 
and that boon for the future, unless we are much 
mistaken, will be a boon to us in respect of honour, 



T48 TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 

no less than a boon to her in respect of happiness, 
prosperity, and peace. Such, sir, is her prayer. 
Think, I beseech you, think wisely, think not for the 
moment, but for the years that are to come, before 
you reject this Bill." 

The eloquence of the grand old English statesman 
was not successful in its immediate results. The 
division was taken, and the Home Rule Bill rejected 
in the House of Commons by thirty votes. 



INDEX 



AiCiLL, Book of, 6 
" Airs, National," 130 
Aidee, battle of, 19 
Ard-ri, 8 

Ardscull, battle of, 28 
Arklow, battle of, 1 10 
Art Macniorrogh, 31 
Athenry, battle of, 28 
Aughrim, battle of, 93 

Bagnall, 59 

Bards, 6, 14, 19, 30, 53 

Battle of Ardee, 19 

Ardscull, 28 

Arklow, no 

Athenry, 28 

Aughrim, 93 

Ballaghmoon, 18 

Benburb, 76 

Boyne, 86 

Clontarf, 21 

Connor, 28 

Dundalk, 29 

Kells, 28 

Knocktow, y] 

Naas, 106 

New Ross, 109 

Newtown Barry, 109 

Rathfarnham, 18 

Tara, 106 

Vinegar Hill, 107 

Yellow Ford, 59 



Cambrensis Giraldus, 23 
Carew, Sir Peter, 52 
Castlereagh, 115 
Catholic Emancipation, 119 
Cathrach, the, 13, 14 
Charles!., 68, 76 
/Charles II., 84 
(Charles Prince, 84 
Chester Castle, 137 
Clanricarde, Earl of, 71 
Cloichtechs, 17 



Clontarf, 21, 121 
Coleraine, siege of, 86 
Columbkille, 10, 13, 32 
Connor, battle of, 28 
Cork, Earl of, 70, 77 
Cornwallis, 115 
Coyne, 8 
Crom Cruach, 9 
Cromwell, 77 
" Croppies," 105 

Deirdre, 2 
Derry, 13, 64, 85 
Desmond, Earl of, 44 
Diarmid, 22 
Douai, 62 
Drapier Letters, 99 
Drogheda, siege of, ^% 
Dundalk, battle of, 29 
Dungannon, Baron of, 38, 61, 74 

Edward VI., 44 

Edward Bruce, 28 

Elizabeth, Queen, 38, 45, 47, 49, 

50, 59 
Emancipation, Catholic, 119 
Emmet, Robert, 129 
Essex, Earl of, 59 
Eva, 23 

" Faerie Queene," 50 
Famine, 123, 125 
Fenian Brotherhood, 133 
Fionn M'Coul, i 
Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 103 
Fitzmaurice, Sir James, 44 
Foreigners, Black, 18 

Fair, 18 

Fosterage, 8, 13, 29, 30 

Gallowgi.a.sses, 9, 39 
"Geese, Wild," 94 
Gelasius, 26 
George III., 116 

14'J 



150 



TALES FROM IRISH HISTORY 



George IV., 120 

Geraldines, 23, 34, 35, 42, 44, 48 

Ginkel, General, 93 

Giraldus Cambrensis, 23 

Gladstone, W, E., 137 

"Glibb,"the, 53 

Gossipred, 29, 30 

Graces, the, 68, 70 

Grattan, 102, in, 116 

Hamilton, 68, 88 
Henry H., 23 

HI., 21 

IV., 33 

VH., 34, 35, 36, 39 

VnL,38 

Hill of Midkena, 4 

of Slane, 12, 14, 17 

Vinegar, 107 

Home Rule, 146 
Howth, Earl of, 35 
Humbert, ill 
Hugh O'Donnell, 59 
O'Neill, 79 

James I., King, 60, 62, 68 

H., King, 84 

John, Kmg, 27 

Kells, battle of, 28 

Kelly, Matthew, 38 

Kerns, 9 

Kildare, Earl of, 34, 35, 39, 57 

Kilkenny, 30 

King Charles I., 68, 76 

Charles H., 84 

Edward VI., 44 

George HI., 116 

Henry II., 23 

Henry- IV., 33 

Henry VII., 34, 35, 36, 39 

Henry VIII., 38 

James I. , 60, 62, 68 

James II., 84 

John, 27 

Laega're, 12 

Richard II., 31, 33 

William III., 96 

Knocktow, battle of, 37 

Laud, Archbishop, 68 
Lauzun, 91 
Letterkenny, 42 



Limerick, Siege of, 76, 93 
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, 30 
"Livery," 8 

Londonderry, Siege of, 86 
Louis XIV., 84, 87, 90 
Louis XVI., 117 

MacMorrogh Art, 31 
Mahon, 19 
Malachy, 19 
M'Coul Fionn, i 
"Melodies, Irish," 130 
Midkena, Hill of, 4 
Moore, Thomas, 128 
Mor Senchus, 6 
Mountjoy, 60, 109 
Murkertagh, 18 
Murphy, Father, 107 

Naas, battle of, 106 
New Ross, battle of, 109 
Newtown Barry, battle of, 109 
Niall of the Nine Hostages, 10 
Northmen, the, 16, 17, 23 

O'CONNELL, 117 

Tribute, 120 

O'Conor, Roderick, 22, 24 
O'Donnell, 14, 38, 40, 59 
O'Maille, Grania, 57 
O'Moore, Rory, 73, 90 
O'Neill, Hugh, 59, 79 

Owen Roe, 74 

Sir Phelim, 73 

Shane, 38 

Orange, Prince of, 84 
Ormonde, 75 

Pale, the, 29, 38, 47 
Parliament of Drogheda, 36 
Parnell, Charles Stewart, 144 
Patrick, Saint, 1 1 
" Patterns," 128 
Pembroke, Earl of, 23 
Penal Laws, 1 1 3 
Perrot, Sir John, 45 
Phoenix Conspiracy, 135 
Pitt, William, 114 
Pope, the, II, 36, 45, 84 
Poynings, wSir Edward, 36 
Poynings' Law, 36, 102 
Prince Charles, 84 

of Orange, 84 

Rupert, 76, 79 



INDEX 



151 



Queen Anne, 97 
Queen Elizabeth, 38, 45 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 51, 56 
Rathfarnham, 18 
Ri, 8 

Ribbon Lodges, 133 
Richard II., King, 31, 33 
Rinuccini, 76 
Robert Bruce, 27, 29 
Rupert, Prince, 76, 79 

Sadleir, James, 134 
— -John, 134 
Saint Brigit, 15 

Columbkille, 10, 13, 32 

Patrick, 1 1 

Sarsfield, Patrick, 90 
Saunders, Nicholas, 46, 47 
Schomberg, Duke of, 86 
Scullabogue, no 
Senchus Mor, 6 
Sheridan, 129 
Sidney, Sir Henry, 42, 44 
Sigurd of Orkney, 20, 21 
Simnel, Lambert, 34 
Smervvick, 47 
Sorrows, the Three, i 
Spain, Philip of, 46 
Spenser, Edmund, 8, 49 
Strongbow, 23 



St Ruth, 93 
Stukeley, 46 
Sussex, Lord, 39, 40 
Swift, Jonathan, 96 

Tanist, 8 
Tara, Battle of, 106 
Tenant League, 134 
Three Sorrows, the, i 
Tone, Wolfe, 103 
Tories, 82 
Turgesius, 17 
Tyrconnell, 84, 91 
Lady, 



Tyrone, Earl of, 3S, 42, 53, 59 
Captain of, 40 



"Undertakers," 49, 54, 64 
United Irishmen, 102 

Vinegar Hill, 107 

Wentwortii, 68 
"Wild Geese," 94 
William III., 96 
Wilton, Lord Grey of, 47 
Wood, William, 99 

Yellow Ford, 59 
Youghal, 51, 70 



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